Volume 19 - Article 56 | Pages 1883–1912  

Men's childbearing desires and views of the male role in Europe at the dawn of the 21st century

By Allan Puur, Livia Sz. Oláh, Mariam Irene Tazi-Preve, Jürgen Dorbritz

Abstract

The development of modern family patterns of the past decades has been accompanied by substantial changes in social norms, values and gender relations. There is theoretical support for the assumption that the persistence of low fertility levels across Europe is likely to be linked to the incomplete gender revolution, more specifically to the lack of, or only limited changes in the male gender role as opposed to women’s role. In order to have a deeper understanding of the development of fertility, we aim to shed more light on the impact of men’s role orientation on their fertility intentions in this study. Our analyses include men aged 20-44 years in eight countries: Austria, Estonia, East Germany, West Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Poland. The data are extracted from the Population Policy Acceptance Study of the early 2000s. Examining within-country differences, we find that men with egalitarian attitudes seem to have higher fertility aspirations than their traditional counterparts in contemporary Europe. This is supported by both the descriptive and the multivariate analyses. The picture is somewhat less conclusive though when we focus on country-rankings by intended family size and by the prevalence of egalitarian versus traditional attitudes.

Author's Affiliation

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Reconciling studies of men’s gender attitudes and fertility: Response to Westoff and Higgins
Volume 22 - Article 8

Introduction to the Special Collection on The new roles of women and men and implications for families and societies
Volume 48 - Article 29

Longevity of World War II Estonian volunteers in the Finnish Army: A follow-up study of the impact of the post-war life course and repressions
Volume 43 - Article 39

Economic uncertainty and first-birth intentions in Europe
Volume 39 - Article 28

Co-ethnic marriage versus intermarriage among immigrants and their descendants: A comparison across seven European countries using event-history analysis
Volume 39 - Article 17

The formation of ethnically mixed partnerships in Estonia: A stalling trend from a two-sided perspective
Volume 38 - Article 38

Childbearing among first- and second-generation Russians in Estonia against the background of the sending and host countries
Volume 36 - Article 41

Socioeconomic and cultural differentials in mortality in a late 19th century urban setting: A linked records study from Tartu, Estonia, 1897-1900
Volume 36 - Article 1

Partnership dynamics among migrants and their descendants in Estonia
Volume 32 - Article 56

Varying association between education and second births in Europe: Comparative analysis based on the EU-SILC data
Volume 31 - Article 27

Jobs, careers, and becoming a parent under state socialist and market conditions: Evidence from Estonia 1971-2006
Volume 30 - Article 64

Intergenerational family constellations in contemporary Europe: Evidence from the Generations and Gender Survey
Volume 25 - Article 4

Should governments in Europe be more aggressive in pushing for gender equality to raise fertility? The second "YES"
Volume 24 - Article 9

Effects of education on second births before and after societal transition: Evidence from the Estonian GGS
Volume 22 - Article 28

Sweden: Combining childbearing and gender equality
Volume 19 - Article 28

Germany: Family diversity with low actual and desired fertility
Volume 19 - Article 17

First union formation in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: patterns across countries and gender
Volume 17 - Article 10

Gender and family stability: Dissolution of the first parental union in Sweden and Hungary
Volume 4 - Article 2

Becoming a Mother in Hungary and Poland during State Socialism
Special Collection 3 - Article 9

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

The transition to adulthood in Europe at the intersection of gender and parental socioeconomic status
Volume 51 - Article 23    | Keywords: Europe, Europe, event history, event history, gender, multilevel analysis, parental socio-economic status, stratification, transition to adulthood

The intergenerational transmission of migration capital: The role of family migration history and lived migration experiences
Volume 50 - Article 29    | Keywords: childhood, emigration, Europe, immigration, life course

Measuring the educational gradient of period fertility in 28 European countries: A new approach based on parity-specific fertility estimates
Volume 49 - Article 34    | Keywords: education, Europe, period fertility, quantum, tempo, total fertility rate (TFR)

Calculating contraceptive prevalence and unmet need for family planning in low-fertility countries with the Generations and Gender Survey
Volume 49 - Article 21    | Keywords: cross-national study, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Europe, family planning, Fertility and Family Survey (FFS), Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), longitudinal data, panel data, unplanned births, World Fertility Survey

The sex preference for children in Europe: Children’s sex and the probability and timing of births
Volume 48 - Article 8    | Keywords: Europe, family structure, fertility, gender, progression rate, sex, sex composition, son preference