The Normative Foundations of Postindustrial Fertility Variation

Abstract

This dissertation explores how individuals simultaneously organize their gender-role ideologies and family-related values and whether and how the normativity of certain gender-role ideologies in a given country context influences individuals’ perceptions and beliefs regarding childbearing and child-raising. Chapter 1 shows that how young women combine their views on gender egalitarianism and family formation depends on the country context in which the woman is situated. For instance, in countries where women’s pursuit of careers is reconcilable with their family-building efforts, women endorsing feminist visions of gender equality have strong child-oriented and pro-motherhood attitudes. However, in countries where the balancing of career and family life is more difficult due to the lack of cultural and institutional supports, women endorsing strong gender-egalitarian values tend to put less value on children and motherhood. These findings demonstrate the importance of the country context in influencing women’s ways of reconciling their views on gender egalitarianism and family formation. In Chapter 2, I found that in countries where the dual role expectation is established as a dominant cultural norm for women, people are more likely to perceive children as a burden. This pattern was particularly pronounced among women, who must contend with the dual expectations of contributing to family income while assuming the responsibility of primary caregiver. Furthermore, I found that between-country differences in the normative context play a larger role than the policy context in explaining variation in the perceived costs/disruptiveness of children across countries. In Chapter 3, I showed that the prevalence of a gender-role ideology that supports women’s employment but places greater priority on their role as caregivers may depress the higher-order fertility intentions of working mothers. I found that this type of gender-role ideology (egalitarian familism) exerts a moderating influence on the relationship between mothers’ full-time employment and their intention to have a second child. This holds even after accounting for key features of the policy environment that are likely to mitigate work-family conflict. The analysis suggests that conflicting normative expectations for women’s work and family roles influence working mothers’ second-order fertility intentions, independent of work-family reconciliation policies.