Population policy forum. Redefining survival

Although I agree with most of the content and the essence of Marge Berer's excellent paper, I beg to differ with her on whether there is a need for a feminist population policy. If we advocate respect for women's needs and right, then we have to believe that women will want to regulate and limit their fertility when it is no longer an essential element in their survival: today, childbearing is a social or economic necessity for many women, even to the detriment of their health. No set numbers should be designated as the ideal family size, nor should any form of ideal family be posed in the 1st place. However, there is an issue of pragmatism or opportunity value that we have to consider. Women need contraceptives to regulate their fertility, among the many other things they need to empower themselves. Those who control economic resources at both the national and international levels are more interested in investing in family planning programs than in other health or development needs. We will not be able to change their motives to some abstract egalitarianism in which they never believed. Our challenge, as feminists, is to develop our own capabilities in 2 ways. One is to gain the technical and intellectual know-how to make a clearer argument that demonstrates the link between effective contraceptive use and addressing women's reproductive health and other economic and social needs. We must convince a reluctant establishment that without empowering women they will not achieve their goals. The 2nd is to create our own organizations and modes of operation that will allow resources to flow into programs and activities that will work for women and not get marginalized and impoverished into paralysis.