Traditionally ‘unmet need’ was defined on the basis of women’s responses to particular survey questions.[83] If a woman reports in a survey that she does not want to have any more children, or wants to postpone the birth of her next child, and is neither breastfeeding nor pregnant, but is not using any form of contraception, she is defined as having an ‘unmet need’. Even the most general among the early models explaining fertility behaviour focused on a female perspective (Davis and Blake 1956; Easterlin 1975). The entire family planning movement and consequent programs were also based on a female model/framework—i. e. women (and initially only married women, as defined by Western concepts of marriage) informed the focus of research, information and service efforts (Hodgson and Watkins 1997; Simmons et al. 1992). Yet women’s own perspectives were not considered in its formulation. Women were the target group, not agenda setters. This model was based in part on the assumption that the ones who do the actual child-
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