Volume 24 - Article 8 | Pages 201–216
Should governments in Europe be more aggressive in pushing for gender equality to raise fertility? The first "NO"
| Date received: | 21 Aug 2007 |
| Date published: | 02 Feb 2011 |
| Word count: | 3472 |
| DOI: | 10.4054/DemRes.2011.24.8 |
| Additional files: | Videos (htm file, 19 kB) |
| Weblink: | All publications in this Special Collection "Rostock Debate on Demographic Change" can be found at http://www.demographic-research.org/special/9/ |
Abstract
This paper takes the "no" side in the debate on the question posed in the title. The paper assumes that the dual-earner/dual-carer household model is the most likely aim of policies that push aggressively for gender equality in order to raise fertility. Five objections are discussed: the model does not necessarily lead to a fertility increase; aggressiveness will lead to an imbalance of labor supply and demand, and is likely to confront slowly changing cultural norms; similar policies will also confront the issue of innate gender differences; and country idiosyncrasies prevent the application of a unified policy approach. The paper briefly concludes that compatible gender-neutral family policies and fertility-neutral gender policies are likely to lead to an increase in fertility.
Author's Affiliation
Dimiter Philipov - Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, OeAW, University of Vienna), Austria
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
»
Differences by union status in health and mortality at older ages: Results for 16 European countries
Volume 35 - Article 19
»
Ageing dynamics of a human-capital-specific population: A demographic perspective
Volume 31 - Article 44
»
Union formation and fertility in Bulgaria and Russia: A life table description of recent trends
Volume 19 - Article 62
»
Bulgaria: Ethnic differentials in rapidly declining fertility
Volume 19 - Article 13
»
Pathways to stepfamily formation in Europe: Results from the FFS
Volume 8 - Article 5
»
Life-table representations of family dynamics in Sweden, Hungary, and 14 other FFS countries: A project of descriptions of demographic behavior
Volume 7 - Article 4
Articles
Citations
Cited References: 32
»View the references of this article
Download to Citation Manager
Similar Articles
PubMed
Google Scholar