Living Childless and Being Fulfilled? Attitudes About the Motherhood Norm and Gender Asymmetry in European Countries

• In Event: 20463 - Population Processes Across the Life Course

Abstract

Low fertility across Europe has been linked to changing values and economic constraints that have led to postponed childbearing and increased childlessness. Attitudes about childlessness, however, have varied widely. The current study examines gender differences in attitudes about women’s childlessness (i.e., whether “a woman has to have children in order to be fulfilled”) in 42 European countries and their links to cultural factors (e.g., attitudes about gender, secularization, political perspectives) and structural measures of gender inequality and labor market conditions, as well as welfare spending (for a subset of 27 countries). Using multi-level analyses of the cross-national European Values Study (2008), merged with country-level data, we find that women were generally more supportive of childlessness (i.e., women do not need to have a child to be fulfilled) than men in more egalitarian countries and those with higher government social spending. In countries with high levels of gender inequality, unemployment, or vulnerable employment, however, women were more likely than men to endorse the need for women to have children. The results reflect gender asymmetry across countries and a greater salience of women’s childbearing in settings with fewer opportunities for women and fewer government supports for working parents.

Authors

• Tanya M. Koropeckyj-Cox, University of Florida

• Alin Mihai Ceobanu, University of Florida