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Abstract
This research is about husband involvement in maternal and child health matters. The aim is to test prevailing assumptions that Guatemalan men are authoritative or aloof husbands and, in turn, are either problematic or irrelevant to maternal and child health. To that end, I first describe gender relations in rural Guatemala and analyze the determinants of husbands' sole authority in four household management and decision-making issues. I then examine whether, how, and why husbands were involved in various aspects of maternal health (pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period) and child health. For data, I rely primarily on the 1995 Guatemalan Family Health Survey and also use qualitative data collected both as a part of that survey project and specifically for this dissertation in 2001.
Together these data point to a high degree of participation by husbands in these health matters, even compared to other family members. Furthermore, husbands' support was not altogether different from that provided by women's mothers and mothers-in-law, though husbands evidently had special responsibilities, for example regarding the use of money.
Some husbands clearly held a great deal of household authority and seemed to pose barriers to women's dealing with their own and their children's health. Yet, overall this research showed that husbands frequently were involved in positive ways and for good reasons. At least regarding these health issues, rural Guatemalan households were characterized by relatively more cooperation, as opposed to conflict, than is often portrayed in literature on gender and health.
Comparisons across health matters also pointed to both similarities and differences in their respective predictors. For example, ethnicity and socioeconomic status consistently were relatively unimportant to determining whether husbands were involved in these health matters. Other factors—such as the physical availability of various family members, husbands' household authority, and characteristics of the health issue at hand—were significant in some analyses but not in others.
Overall, the results contribute to understanding both health behavior and gender in Guatemala and demonstrate the merits of re-thinking husbands' relationship to maternal and child health more generally.
