What Happens at the Valley of Transition?: A Gender Equality Approach to Women's Employment and Fertility

• In Event: 231 - Section on Sociology of Population Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01.

Abstract

The gender equality approach to fertility argues for a U-shaped relationship between the fertility rate and gender egalitarianism, that the low fertility is a temporal phenomenon during the period of transition from a once-stable family equilibrium based on the traditional gender division of labor to a new gender egalitarian equilibrium of family life. According to this perspective, it is those societies where gender egalitarianism is diffused to a limited degree that the fertility is the lowest, namely East Asian countries and Eastern/Southern European countries. Why is the fertility rate the lowest in those countries? We argue that the mismatch between women's life style preferences and labor market opportunities in the moderately egalitarian countries plays an important role by constraining the realization of the life style preference of women thereby affecting negatively the fertility decision. Using ISSP 2012 Family and changing gender roles module, this study examines the relationship among fertility, gender gap in the labor market, and the preference realization, a variable constructed with gender role attitudes and economic participation. The result shows that the preference realization shows a significant cross-national variation, highest in Sweden and lowest in East Asian countries and Eastern European countries. More gender egalitarian countries shows a greater preference realization. The degree of preference realization is positively related with fertility. In the multi-level analysis, there exists a strong cross-level interaction effect;the negative educational gradient on fertility reported previously is reversed in countries with the high level of preference realization.

Author

• Young-Mi Kim, Yonsei University