LAUSR

In 1994, female empowerment and gender equality were emphasized as global priorities at the Fourth International Conference on Population and Development (1). Since then, extensive effort has been made to extend female empowerment internationally (2). Today, empowering women is a controversial issue in development (3). It is considered as the main indicator of women’s status (4). The word “empowerment”, describes freedom of choice and personal performance in terms of increased power and personal control of resources and decisions that affect their lives (5). The benefit of female empowerment is not limited to women; it also helps them play a more effective role in sustainable development and develops social wellbeing in their society (6,7). Various factors can effect female empowerment and education has been mentioned in numerous studies (5,8). Education, especially higher education can facilitate realization of a woman’s social, economic, and political potential as well as her particular conditions and an awareness of her human rights (6,9,10). Likewise, education plays an important role in overcoming barriers that block expansion of female empowerment (11). From another perspective, fertility rates have decreased in recent decades in developed and developing countries and many societies have encountered demographic changes (12). Researchers believe that the main causes of reduced fertility are level of education and age of women at marriage as well as competition for employment and promotion of socio-economic status and living standards (13-16). According to the demographic and health survey report of the US Agency for International Development in 2010, Asian women’s empowerment contributed to reduced fertility and education was the only strategy to curb this issue (17). In majority of international statistics and sources, female empowerment has been measured according to the level of education and its impact on reducing fertility rates (8,18). However, some studies have reported that there is no relationship between female empowerment and factors such as the level of education. Besides, there have been many debates on methods of female empowerment, none of which are clear (19). Indeed, the definition of empowerment is still vague and there is no specific standard to describe a concept of empowerment that is applicable to all social and cultural contexts (20). In addition, this definition depends on particular political conditions and belief system of an individual (21). Thus, it would be better to clarify the concept of empowerment according to social context rather than a Abstract An increase in the number of women attending university is a relatively new phenomenon. According to international reports, greater numbers of academically educated women have reduced their fertility rate. This phenomenon has contributed to the reduced fertility in Iran in recent decades. According to international research, women’s empowerment has affected their fertility through education. This study applied a narrative review method. It set out to examine the impact of the increasing number of women in academic education and their reduced fertility on Iranian female empowerment. Searching electronic databases, 464 scientific documents published during 1994-2016 were retrieved out of which 71 were included in the study. Research showed that the higher level of women’s education did not lead to equality with men in terms of their economic, socio-cultural, and political status. Moreover, it was revealed that educated women were deprived of their right to make their own decisions on family planning issues. Female empowerment, as one of the main objectives in sustainable development, needs more emphasis on women’s reproductive rights and a strategy to reduce gender discrimination considering the related cultural issues.