In my Introduction to Anthropology textbook, “Culture asGiven, Culture as Choice” by van der Elst, there was a comment that got me thinking, All that is needed for women to fall into poverty is just to have one more child than they can afford. This comment impacted me and got me thinking and it made a lot of sense. One child represents not only the additional cost to support that new human being, but also the opportunity costs of not pursuing other economic activities because of caring for the newcomer.