Ghanaian Mother (International Labour Office, 1987), Christine Oppong and Katherine Abu recorded field interviews in Ghana that confirmed a traditional view of procreation. Citing figures from the Ghana fertility survey of 1983, the authors concluded that about 60 percent of women in the country preferred to have large families of five or more children. The largest number of children per woman was found in the rural areas where the traditional concept of family was strongest. Uneducated urban women also had large families. On the average, urbanized, educated, and employed women had fewer children. On the whole, all the interviewed groups saw childbirth as an essential role for women in society, either for the benefits it bestows upon the mother or for the honour it brings to her family. The security that procreation provided was greater in the case of rural and uneducated women. By contrast, the number of children per mother declined for women with post-elementary education and outside employment; with guaranteed incomes and little time at their disposal in their combined roles as mothers and employees, the desire to procreate declined. Education The transition into the modern world has been slow for women in Ghana. High rates of female fertility in Ghana in the 1980s exhibit, historically, that women's primary role was that of child-bearing. Some parents were reluctant to send their daughters to school because their labour was needed in the home or on the farm. Resistance to female education also stems from the conviction that women would be supported by their husbands. In some circles, there was even the fear that a girl's marriage prospects diminished when she became educated. Where girls went to school, most of them did not continue after receiving the basic education certification. Others did not even complete the elementary level of education, despite the Education Act of 1960 which expanded and required elementary school. At numerous workshops organized by the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD) between 1989 and 1990, the alarming drop-out rate among girls at the elementary school level caused great concern. Given the drop-out rate among girls, the NCWD called upon the government to find ways to remedy the situation. The disparity between male and female education in Ghana was again reflected in the 1984 national census. Although the ratio of male to female registration in elementary schools was 55 to 45, the percentage of girls at the