Female education weakens son-preference-driven fertility desire in Nepal

Nepal has experienced substantial fertility decline, yet son preference remains evident in reproductive behavior. This study examines whether women's desire for another child differs by the sex composition of existing children, and how this association varies by women's own education, partner education, and community-level education. To study this, we used pooled data from the Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys (1996-2022; N = 49834 women), and logistic regression with survey-year fixed effects. Women without sons are consistently more likely to desire another child than women with at least one son. Higher female education is strongly associated with weaker son-preference-driven fertility desire (OR = 9.63, 95 per cent CI [7.6-11.84] among no education and OR = 4.54, 95 per cent CI [1.76-12.037] among higher education), and this gap has narrowed substantially over time. Partner education is associated with lower fertility desire only among lower educated women but does not significantly modify the effect of having no son. Community education is also strongly associated. Among no education and without sons, predicted desire falls from 0.84 [0.83-084] to 0.21 [0.20-0.22] as community MYS rises from around 0 to 7 years. Female education thus both individually and contextually reduce son-preference-driven fertility desire.