Does family planning use empower women? A systematic review of the evidence.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Extensive evidence suggests that family planning programs are second only to education in providing returns on dollars spent with improvements in long-term maternal and child health outcomes. However, no current research synthesis to date has robustly examined whether use of family planning results in increased empowerment and greater agency of women, despite theoretical, but not empirical, support that family planning influences this outcome as well. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review of the evidence on how women's access to and/or use of family planning methods impacts their agency and empowerment, including mechanisms and effect modifiers important to this relationship.

Methods

We searched 20 global and regional databases for interventional and

SUBMITTER: Diamond-Smith NG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12613654 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature