Negotiating through reproductive change: Gendered social interaction and fertility regulation in Mozambique

This paper addresses the role of informal social section interaction in rep roductive changes. Using data from individual and focus groups interviews c onducted with men and women in suburban areas of Greater Maputo, Mozambique , it shows how people gain fertility-related and family planning-related in formation and form their corresponding attitudes and preferences through ve rbal and non-verbal exchanges with others. This social interaction on repro ductive matters is gendered: men and women's interaction circuits rarely ov erlap, focus on different aspects of fertility and family-planning and cons true them in distinctly gendered ways. Informal social interaction, therefo re, affects marital partners' reproductive choices not only by complementin g fertility-related information disseminated through formal channels but al so through accentuating and negotiating gender differences in reproductive goals and expectations.