DE LA CONTABILIDAD DE PRINCIPIOS (IMPUNIDAD) A LA CONTABILIDAD FORENSE (RESPONSABILIDAD)

Like age at first marriage, the age at first birth is also very early, and motherhood is also universal. For all women aged 15-49 years as well as for the older women aged 20-49 years, the median age at first birth is just under 20 years. About ten per cent of both groups of women have their first birth by 16 years, about 25 per cent before they are 18 years old, about 75 per cent before they are 23 years old, and about 90 per cent before 27 years of age. Interestingly, the distribution is also fairly symmetrical about the median, with 25 per cent of women having their first birth in the 2.2-year period between the ages of 17.7 (T25) and 19.9 (the median), and another 25 per cent having their first birth in the three-year period between 19.9 years (the median) and 22.9 years (the T75). The trimeans are therefore very close to

for each group of women. That is, about 50 per cent of women have their first birth in the five-year period between the ages of 17.7 and 22.9 years.

When estimates for only ever-married women (accounting for about 80 per cent of the total sample) are compared with those for all women, it is observed that at the lower end of the distribution up to the median, the values are the same, that is, irrespective of marital status, the first birth occurs on the average before a woman is 20 years old. At the upper end of the distribution however, a slight difference of up to 0.6 of a year in age at first birth is observed at the 75th percentile, and 0.8 of a year at the 90th. On the whole however it appears that marriage by itself is not a significant influence on age at motherhood, although about 75 per cent of women marry before they have their first child.

A clear difference in the timing of motherhood is however observed when age at first birth for women with premarital births and conceptions are compared with those for women without premarital births and conceptions. Women with premarital births and conceptions have their first child on the average about 2.6 years earlier than women without.14 The difference in the trimeans is 2.8 years. At the lower end of the distribution, the difference in age at first birth between the two groups of women is two to three years, but increases to between three and five years from the 75th

14This estim ate how ever involves a technical difficulty. W hereas some of the w om en w itho ut prem arital births and conceptions are censored, that is, w hereas they include nulliparou s w om en at the d ate of the survey, w om en listed as having experienced a prem arital birth or conception have all experienced a first birth. Thus part of the higher estimate of age at first birth for the groups with censored cases will be contributed to by the fact of their censorship or truncation of their first birth experience, especially as a life table m ethod of estim ation is used. As a solution, and as a possible check of the influence of censorship on the estim ates, we can re-estim ate the age at first birth for w om en w ithout prem arital births and conceptions, based on only those who have actually experienced a first birth. Since this will not involve censorship or the life table m ethod, the estim ate is technically different in concept from the one w ith the censored cases. It is how ever conceptually sim ilar to the estim ate for women w ith prem arital births in the table, since in both cases the first birth has actually been experienced by all women. The m edian is not significantly different from that for the group containing the censored wom en, and other statistics are also sim ilar to those for the censored group. This u p h o ld s the original observation that w om en w ith prem arital births and conceptions have their first birth at younger ages than women w ithout pre-m antal births and conceptions.

percentile onwards. The big difference in age at first birth between the two groups of women contrasts with the observed situation for age at first marriage where little or no difference is observed between the two groups.

Table 4.6: The median and selected quantiles of age at first birth for all women and by age cohort

V a r i a b l e NO. _{T l O T25} tri- t 50 t 75 t 90 m e a n s p r e a d A l l (15-49) 6125 16 . 2 17.7 19.9 2 2 . 9 26.6 20 . 1 5.2 A l l (20-49) 4754 16 . 0 17.6 19.8 2 2 . 8 26.6 20.0 5.2 E v e r - m a r r i e d 4943 15 . 9 17.5 19 . 5 2 2 . 3 25.8 19.7 4.8 W i t h p r e m a r i t a l b i r t h s o r c o n c e p t i o n s 1218 14.7 16.3 17.9 19. 9 22.6 18.0 3 . 6 W i t h o u t p r e m a r i t a l o r c o n c e p t i o n s (a ) b i r t h s 53 6 1 16 . 7 18.3 20 . 5 23 . 7 27.7 20.8 5.4 W i t h o u t p r e m a r i t a l b i r t h s a n d c o n c e p t i o n s ( b )3407 1 6 . 3 17.7 19.7 22 . 2 25.2 19.8 4i . 5 A g e c o h o r t 1 5 - 1 9 ( 1 9 6 0 - 6 4 ) 13 7 1 16 . 9 18.1 1 9 . 6 c c c c 2 0 - 2 4 ( 1 9 5 5 - 5 9 ) 1220 16. 3 17.7 1 9 . 5 2 2 . 0 c 19.7 4.4 2 5 - 2 9 ( 1 9 5 0 - 5 4 ) 1 0 1 1 16 . 2 17.8 19 . 9 22 . 7 25. 9 20 . 1 4 . 9 3 0 - 3 4 ( 1 9 4 5 - 4 9 ) 802 1 5 . 5 17.4 19 . 9 2 2 . 9 26 . 0 20.0 5.5 3 5 - 3 9 ( 1 9 4 0 - 4 4 ) 703 15.4 17.2 19.6 2 2 . 8 26.7 19.8 5 . 6 4 0 - 4 4 ( 1 9 3 5 - 3 9 ) 579 16.2 17.8 20 . 2 2 4 . 1 2 8 . 1 20.6 6.3 4 5 - 4 9 ( 1 9 3 0 - 3 4 ) 439 1 6 . 2 17.8 20.4 2 4 . 0 28.6 20.7 6.2

Notes: a:censored; (that is,includes nulli-parous women)

b: not censored; (that is, based on only parous women. See footnote 13). The standard error for the median for both the censored and uncensored group (b) is 0.008.

In Ghana, although restricting childbearing within marriage is desirable and encouraged, no stigma attaches to premarital births or conceptions. Illegitimacy by itself is not proscribed, except in the case of births resulting from illegal or undesirable liaisons such as incestuous relationships or from a sexual union occurring before a girl's nubility rites are performed (Fortes, 1976:40; Gaisie, 1984:12).

Moreover, among many ethnic groups, (especially the Ga-Adangbe, Ewe and Akan), marriage is not allowed to take place between lovers or prospective marriage partners if the woman is found to be premaritally pregnant (Sarpong, 1974:86)15. The woman is allowed to deliver the child first before the marriage is contracted16. Because of this, and the fact that the marriage process is sometimes very protracted and can take several months to complete, premarital conceptions which in other cultures could be covered up with a quickly-arranged marriage usually progress into a premarital birth with the marriage itself taking place several months after the birth has occurred. Thus though a premarital birth may occur early, a resultant marriage may occur much later, or perhaps not at all. Sometimes, the premaritally pregnant young girl may be simply too young to get married. The low ages at first birth for women with premarital conceptions (17.9 years) compared to those for women without premarital conceptions (20.5 years) however demonstrates that exposure to sexual intercourse is early, and in the absence of widespread knowledge and use of contraception,

^ Indeed a divorce also cannot take place between a man and his wife when the woman is wever go unnoticed, and may not affect the decision to get married. In some other cases too,especially when a couple expects to have a church, Western or social wedding, or where the integrity of a family or a girl is at stake, and a girl becomes accidentally pregnant, marriage is quickly or forcibly arranged (Gaisie, 1984:12). This probably explain , as is seen in Section 4, the existence of negative first birth intervals as well as positive first birth intervals, but which are shorter than nine months or the normal gestation period of a regular postmarital pregnancy. Also, sexual intercours emay take place between couples who are getting married and have fulfilled and completed part but not all of the marriage requirements and processes. Pregnancies can result during this period, and whether or not the marriage takes place before or after parturition, the child born is as legitimate and as honourable as any conceived and born completely within wedlock. pregnant (Sarpong, 1974:86).

sex education, abortion facilities or abhorrence of illegitimacy, the high incidence of premarital births and conceptions and the low ages at first birth are not surprising. Since women with premarital births and conceptions have their first birth about 2.6 years earlier than women without, but do not marry earlier than the latter, it supports the earlier assertion that a premarital birth or conception would not necessarily result in an immediate marriage or in a marriage arranged to take place before the birth of the child. Secondly, it is not a later age at first marriage or a failure to get married at all that occasions a premarital birth or pregnancy. On the whole, women who have a premarital birth or pregnancy are younger than women who have their first births within marriage. Thus early uninformed exposure to unprotected sexual intercourse will largely explain this phenomenon.

The distribution of age at first birth according to current age or age cohort confirms not only the early age at first birth in Ghana, but also the uniform and stable age at entry into motherhood. The quantiles for each age cohort are largely within only a few months of those for other age cohorts. The slightly higher estimates of age at first birth for the 75th and 90th percentiles for the 40-44 and 45-49 year-old women compared to the younger women as was noted for age at first marriage may be related to possible age misstatement among older women, the possible omission or a displacement of some first births by them,especially if those died soon after birth. The differences are however very small and insignificant, and the expected magnitude of error, if any, will be small.

The early age at entry into motherhood as well as the universality of motherhood are confirmed in Table 4.7 when the percentage of women having their first birth at various ages by current age is examined. As early as 15 years of age, between four and 13 per cent of women in various age cohorts have had a birth, the highest estimates of 12.8 and 13.4 per cent being

by 28 years of age, over 90 per cent of women have had a birth, and by the end of the reproductive period, nearly all women have had a child. In fact by 30 years of age, nearly all women who would have a birth would have done so already.

The achievement of almost universal fertility before 30 years of age highlights the importance placed on fertility, particularly a woman's fertility in Ghana. Most researchers are agreed that though marriage is important in West Africa, and indeed throughout tropical Africa, it is parenthood that ushers in adult status, and marriage is only designed to maximise reproductive capacity within the community (Nukunya, 1975:338; Fortes, 1976:17; Caldwell and Caldwell, 1985:5). Fortes (1976:22,23) argues that 'in contrast to the traditional European emphasis on marriage as the modal relationship in family structure, in Africa, the critical feature is parenthood .. Fertility was traditionally, and still is valued above all other human achievements in all strata and among all types of African societies ...The achievement of parenthood is regarded as a sine qua non for the attainment of full development as a complete person to which all aspire'. Socialisation within the lineage environment ensures that this cultural characteristic is internalised.

As with Table 4.2, Table 4.6 shows that the cumulative percentages of 40-44 and 45-49 year-olds having a first birth by various ages are lower than for other age cohorts. Specifically however, it is women aged 30-34 and 35-39 who by almost every age have the highest cumulative percentages having a b ir th 17. As we have noted, at 15 years of age, 12.8 and 13.4 per cent respectively of 30-34 and 35-39 year-olds have had a birth, compared to 17 This can also be partly observed in Table 4.6. The age at which ten percent of the 30-34 and 35-39 year birth cohort have had a birth is 15.5 and 15.4 years respectively, compared to between 16.2 and 16.9 years for all other cohorts. The differentials are however small, and probably of no great consequence.

between 7.9 and 9.0 per cent for 20-24 and 25-29 year-olds respectively, and 8.5 and 8.7 per cent of 40-44 and 45-49 year-olds respectively. The same phenomenon can be observed at ages 16, 17, 18 and 19. Age errors and errors of omission and displacement of births may be responsible for this observed pattern, but it is also clear that women aged 30-39 at the time of the survey belong to the age cohort that has probably grown up in a period in Ghana when pro-natalist policies were espoused and pursued by the Government. These age cohorts were born between 1940-44 and 1945-49, and were in their early marital and motherhood years between 1959 and 1966. This was the period soon after political independence, and official government population policy was pronatalist, favouring high population growth and an expected population size of 20 million18 . Pronatalist population views were espoused at the time; family planning was actively discouraged; the sale of contraceptives was banned, and government had even discussed the possibility of penal sanctions against contraception (Gaisie, Addo and Jones, 1975:410)19

18 Ghana's population then was between six and eight million, and now stands at about 16 million.

19Indeed, an attempt to draw up an objective population policy for Ghana at this time was sabotaged by the pronatalist Nkrumah government. According to Gaisie, Addo and Jones (1975:409-410), the President established an interdepartmental advisory committee headed by the Government Chief Statistician to consider a population policy for Ghana. The first and only meeting of the committee was attended by representatives from various departments and institutions, among them medical practitioners, ministers of religion, demographers, senior civil servants and politicians. The Central Bureau of Statistics submitted to this meeting a memorandum containing proposals for the committee to consider as the basis for formulating Ghana's population policy. The committee met only once, and took only one hour to 'complete' its work, having been dominated by the politicians who were sent there to hammer out the official policy on population growth, that Ghana was capable of supporting a population size of 20 million. The Government Chief Statistician confirmed at the meeting

Table 4.7 Cumulative percentages of women having their first birth by specified ages at first motherhood and by age cohort

E x a c t C U R R E N T A G E 0 F W O M E N a g e a t e n t r y 1 5 - 1 9 2 0 - 2 4 2 5 - 2 9 3 0 - 3 4 3 5 - 3 9 4 0 - 4 4 4 5 - 4 9 N o. 1 3 7 1 1 2 2 0 1 0 1 1 8 0 2 7 0 3 5 7 9 4 3 9 1 2 0 . 2 0 . 6 1 . 0 2 . 1 2 . 0 0 . 9 0 . 5 1 3 0 . 3 1 . 3 2 . 1 3 . 8 3 . 1 1 . 8 2 . 1 1 4 1 . 0 3 . 3 4 . 3 6 . 8 7 . 4 4 . 2 4 . 6 1 5 4 . 1 7 . 9 9 . 0 1 2 . 8 1 3 . 4 8 . 5 8 . 7 1 6 1 6 . 3 1 5 . 7 2 0 . 0 2 3 . 1 1 7 . 7 1 6 . 4 1 7 2 9 . 0 2 8 . 0 3 1 . 8 3 2 . 5 2 7 . 5 2 6 . 9 1 8 4 3 . 8 3 9 . 7 4 1 . 7 4 4 . 2 3 8 . 4 3 4 . 6 1 9 5 5 . 5 5 0 . 9 5 1 . 3 5 3 . 9 4 8 . 6 4 5 . 8 2 0 6 6 . 2 6 1 . 8 6 1 . 2 6 4 . 1 5 7 . 6 5 6 . 3 2 1 7 0 . 9 6 9 . 3 7 0 . 2 6 3 . 8 6 3 . 8 2 2 7 7 . 2 7 5 . 7 7 6 . 5 7 0 . 0 6 9 . 5 2 3 8 3 . 1 8 1 . 3 8 1 . 2 7 4 . 8 7 5 . 0 2 4 8 7 . 2 8 6 . 3 8 4 . 6 7 9 . 5 8 0 . 9 2 5 9 0 . 1 9 0 . 0 8 7 . 9 8 3 . 8 8 4 . 3 2 6 9 1 . 6 9 1 . 2 8 7 . 4 8 6 . 8 2 7 9 3 . 0 9 3 . 0 8 9 . 8 8 8 . 9 2 8 9 3 . 7 9 4 . 4 9 1 . 2 9 1 . 0 2 9 9 4 . 6 9 6 . 0 9 2 . 9 9 2 . 8 3 0 9 5 . 5 9 6 . 7 9 3 . 8 9 4 . 9 3 1 9 7 . 1 9 5 . 2 9 5 . 4 3 2 9 7 . 7 9 5 . 5 9 6 . 1 3 3 9 8 . 1 9 5 . 9 9 6 . 3 3 4 9 8 . 1 9 6 . 1 9 7 . 0 3 5 9 8 . 4 9 6 . 6 9 7 . 2

At the same time, socialist views were propagated, and the state was seen as accepting responsibility for the social and economic needs of individuals. Indeed, fee-free education was introduced, along with free textbooks and stationery, and even school uniforms in the remote northern and upper regions. Expenditure on education almost tripled from NC 30 million to more than NC 80 million a year during the seven-year period from 1961/62 to 1967/6820. Primary and middle school enrolment increased more than 20 One new Cedi (NC 1.00) at the time was equivalent to about one United States dollar

one-and-a-half times from 825,000 in 1961/62 to 1.4 million in 1967/68, and secondary school enrolment also more than doubled from under 20,000 to about 44,000 during the same period. Lodging and boarding facilities in government secondary and tertiary institutions were heavily subsidized and free in several of them, including the universities. Free health care and medication were also introduced; government jobs were created and provided, and government-subsidized housing was also made available on a large scale in urban areas and several large towns. It was a period of optimism and prosperity as well as of active and fast social and economic development. People were confident of their future and of the future of their children, and it is possible that some of these developments must have had a positive effect on marriage and motherhood, especially at the critical ages when these first become a consideration. These pronatalist considerations were however not negated by the increase in school enrolments, because in spite of the improvements noted above, a large percentage of the school-going population was still out of school (Gaisie, Addo and Jones, 1975:410; Dugbaza, 1981:). Conversely, it could also be argued that the effects of whatever gains were made in education were probably negated by the strong pronatalist sentiments in the country at the time. Indeed socioeconomic development and the pronatalist tendencies in Ghana at the time probably acted in opposite directions to keep fertility stable.

The consequence of the above scenario is that marriage and fertility aspirations remained very high, especially among young people. As could be seen from Table 4.7 for example, by exact age 19 years, and also at exact ages 20-25 years, slightly higher percentages of the 20-24 and 25-29 age cohorts have had a first birth. Earlier sexual maturity, probably related to improved health and nutrition, in the absence of changes in the timing of exposure to sexual intercourse and use of contraception could lead to earlier

Table 4.8 presents the age at first b irth according to socioeconom ic background of wom en. The m ost im p o rtan t background characteristics show ing a clear relatio n sh ip w ith age at first birth are education and

p rem arital em ploym ent. D ifferentials betw een categories of all other

variables in their m edian and trim ean age at first birth as well as in the 10th and 25th percentiles are less than one year, although for the 75th and 90th percentiles, the differences ap p ear to be u p to one-and-a-half years. The semi inter-quartile range values are also sim ilar, w ith differences betw een the highest and lowest values betw een categories ranging from 1.2 years (religion) to 2.2 years (education).

The m edian and trim ean ages at first birth for w om en w ith secondary or h ig h er ed u catio n are over five years later th an for w om en w ith no