Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2011
At a time when women's participation in developing countries and their breast-feeding practice are the objects of promotional campaigns, findings on the relationship between the two are required for formulating policies. Empirical findings from the 1973 National Demographic Survey in the Philippines strongly suggest the adverse effects of modernization on both the initiation and duration of breast-feeding. In this study a high level of education and working outside the house are found to be the modernization variables that are most effective in depressing the level and duration of breast-feeding practice, independent of the influences of other socioeconomic and demographic factors.