Gender-Role Ideology, Labor Market Institutions, and Post-industrial Fertility

Fertility rates below population replacement level now characterize a broad swath of post-industrial societies, especially in Southern Europe and East Asia. This article offers a theoretical framework that gives primacy to the role of gender-essentialist norms and institutional variation in labor ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population and development review 2016-09, Vol.42 (3), p.405-433
Main Authors: Brinton, Mary C., Lee, Dong-Ju
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Birth
Birth rate
Fertility
Ideology
Institutions
Labor market
Marriage
Replacement level
Sex roles
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Summary:Fertility rates below population replacement level now characterize a broad swath of post-industrial societies, especially in Southern Europe and East Asia. This article offers a theoretical framework that gives primacy to the role of gender-essentialist norms and institutional variation in labor markets to explain variation in total fertility rates across 24 OECD countries over the past two decades. We demonstrate the variation in gender-role ideologies that characterize post industrial countries and show how these country-level patterns interact with measures of labor market protection and the economic situation of young adult males to influence variation in TFRs. We provide evidence that interaction between gender-role ideologies and labor market institutions that reinforces men's role as breadwinners and women's role as caregivers (what we term gender-essentialist norms) is negatively related to post-industrial fertility.
ISSN:0098-7921
1728-4457
DOI:10.1111/padr.161