ABSTRACT
This chapter is the effect of competition among gatekeeper organizations on the power of their constituent members or employees. Governments seek to regulate reproduction in a variety of ways, often without being aware of the political effects of what they do. Power blocs within a society construe reproduction according to their own agendas. Power is the ability to influence or control the behavior and beliefs of others even without their consent. Women have been subject to clitoridectomies, menstrual taboos that rationalize their exclusion from important social, political, and economic activities, food taboos during pregnancy which commonly reduce the intake of essential nutrients precisely when they are most needed, and treatment as chattels who are important almost solely for their reproductive capacity. Women experienced significantly expanded resource access opportunities in an economy and political system that was subject to increasing competition from international sources.
