Sociology- Reasons for the decline in the birth rate
- Created by: Daisymac
- Created on: 13-03-19 14:54
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- Reasons for the decline in the birth rate
- Changes in women's positions
- Legal equality with men--> right to vote
- Increased educational opportunities
- More women in paid employment and laws about sex discrimination
- Changes in attitudes to family life and women's role
- Easier access to divorce
- Access to abortion and reliable contraception
- Harper 2012- The education of women is the most important reason as it has led to a change in the mind-set of women
- They are more likely to use family planning and see other possibilities apart from the traditional role of being a housewife and mother
- In 2012, 1 in 5 women aged 45 was childless
- Harper notes that smaller families have become the norm
- Decline in infant mortality
- IMR measures the number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive per year
- Harper argues fall in IMR leads to fall in birth rate
- Because if many infants die parent have more children to replace them
- In 1900- 154
- In 2018- 4.3
- Fell due to
- Improved sanitation and housing, which reduced infection
- Better nutrition of babies and mothers
- Better knowledge of childcare, health, welfare
- Improved services for women and babies, such as clinics
- From 1950s, medical factors played a greater role ed. mass immunisation and use of antibiotics and improved midwifery
- Brass and Kabir 1978 argue that the trend to smaller families began not in rural areas but in urban areas, where the IMR remained higher for longer
- Children are now an economic liability
- Until 19th c, children= economic asset
- Laws banning child labour, introducing compulsory education and raised leaving age --> Economically dependent
- Changing norms about what children have a right to expect from their parents in material terms mean the cost of bringing up children has risen
- Child centredness
- Means childhood is socially constructed
- Shift from quantity to quality
- Future trends in birthrates
- Has been a slight increase in births since 2001
- Increase in immigration as mothers from outside uk have a higher birthrate
- Untitled
- Changes in women's positions
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