yep the education of women is a big factor. When talking about population in grde 12 global geography (why I still remember this I dunno) my teacher gave a very basic example to explain this:
woman goes to school, and graduates high school at 18
then goes to university for 4 years, now 22
then maybe a masters program for 2 years, 24
now she works in her job and gets settled in it, 3-4 years, now 27-28
settles down and gets married after being comfortable in her job, now 30
then wait a bit in the marrige before deciding to have kinds, now 32
then gets pregnant, and devlivers, now 33
has another child possibly 2-3 years later, and suddenly she's 34-35 years old
in a place where there isn't the same level of education or even high school, if you start having children at 17 or 18, then statistics show you'll end up having more children, look at families of your grandparents, or great grandparents with like 7-10 children. Start having children ealier you end up having more.
Another factor was infant mortality rates, if one in say 7 children die before the age of 10, you're going to want to have more children to ensure survival, it's a basic instinct. Whereas in the first world, that isn't much of a worry.
In the developped nations the natural reproduction rate is 2.1 children for every 2 people, whereas in developping nations it's alot higher.
those are just come factors that I remember from a class 5 years ago, so don't treat them like the bible (like everything else I say
), I might be off on somethings.