Children of the (gender) revolution: A theoretical and empirical synthesis of how gendered division of labour influences fertility

Abstract

Gender equity theories of fertility broadly predict that the lowest fertility in high-income settings will be seen in women facing a ‘dual burden’ of both paid and unpaid labour responsibilities, but that fertility will increase when male partners share domestic labour. Here we provide a critique of some gender equity theories of fertility in demography, and restate the hypothesis in terms of complementarity between partners. Further, we suggest authors use an interdisciplinary approach, such as integrating perspectives from evolutionary theory and the ‘Traits-Desires-Intentions-Behaviour’ framework, to provide some consistency to this diverse literature. Building on this theoretical synthesis, we perform a systematic review of 95 pieces of analysis. This broadly supports the idea that fertility will be low where women face a dual burden, which is particularly evident among macro-level studies, micro-level analyses investigating progression to subsequent children, and studies which do not use gender role attitudes as an independent variable.

Keywords:

• fertility
• fertility intentions
• gender equality
• gender revolution theory
• gender equity
• behavioural frameworks
• psychosocial theories
• evolutionary theory
• traits-desires-intentions-behaviour

Notes

1 Please send all correspondence to Alyce Raybould, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom; or by E-mail: [email protected]

2 Funding: Corresponding author has an ESRC studentship. This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council.

3 The authors would like to acknowledge Lynda Clarke, Rachel Scott, and the Evolutionary Demography Group at LSHTM for their feedback and comments on this paper.