Childbearing and parenting in low fertility countries: enabling choices

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Childbearing and parenting in low fertility
countries enabling choices

• Anne H. Gauthier (Canada)
• With contributions from K. Kiernan and J. Hobcraft

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Overview

1. What have been the demographic trends?
2. What have been the policy responses?
3. What are the issues related to partnership,
   childbearing, and parenting?

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1. What have been the demographic trends?

• Diversification of the life course of individuals
• Timing of key transitions to adulthood
  (postponement)
• Instability of unions
• Parenting context
• Achievement of extremely low levels of fertility
• Reversal of the correlation between demographic
  events (e.g. fertility and female labor force
  participation)

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1. Diversification and postponement what do they
mean?

• Imperfect theories
• Country-specific explanations? Gender equality?
• Incomplete understanding of ways macro-level
  structures (e.g. welfare state) influence the
  choices and life course of individuals
• Data! (FFS GGP)

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1. Diversification and postponement what do they
mean?

• Greater choices (timing and sequence of events,
  context of parenting)
• Difficult choices how to reach family goals and
  maximize human capital (is there a right timing?)
• Inequalities in societies in terms of choices
  (e.g. adolescent mothers, young adults with
  precarious employment)
• Financial protection of children in case of union
  dissolution

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2. What have been the policy responses?

• Financial and legal support to families
• Support to employed parents
• Gender equality
• Child and family-friendly societies

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Financial and legal support to families

• Recent trends
• General increase in financial support of
  low-income families and single-parents
• Greater reliance on means-tested benefits
• Elimination of tax disincentives to dual-earner
  families
• Acknowledgement of different living arrangements

• BUT still high levels of child and family
  poverty
• BUT not universal recognition and support of
  alternative living arrangements

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Support to employed parents (family-work)

• Recent trends
• Extension of maternity, parental, and childcare
  leave
• Provision of childcare facilities or subsidies
• Promotion of gender equality

• BUT childcare shortages
• BUT unequal participation of men and women in
  take-up of parental leave
• BUT wage penalty associated with withdrawals
  from the labor market for child-rearing

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Child and family-friendly societies

• Some steps BUT
• Incoherence in total package of policies
• Unintended consequences (e.g. parental and
  childcare leave gender equality)
• Limited state-family sharing of total cost of
  children
• Poverty and social exclusion
• Not all social actors and institutions are
  involved

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3. What are the issues? Financial
S1- No work interruption
S2- Work interruption with no child penalty
Earnings
S3-Work interruption with child penalty
Childbirth and work interruption for childcare
Age
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What are the issues? Language

• Pronatalist policies
• Family-enabling policies
• Choices
• Mutually supportive and equitable partnerships
• Work-life balance
• Promotion of gender equality
• Reduction of poverty and social exclusion
• Protection of sexual and reproductive health

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Further issues

• Choices
• Enabling reproductive choices
• Access to information and services (birth
  control, protection against STDs HIV/AIDS, safe
  motherhood)
• Protecting adolescents
• Infertility delayed childbearing
• Promoting employment and financial security
  (young adults)

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Further issues

• Gender equality, involving fathers
• Domestic violence
• Opportunities for lifelong learning and
  re-training
• Investment into children
• Early years
• Early childhood education
• Skills to enable them to be successful in new
  economy

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Conclusion what really matters?

• Enabling opportunities and choices
• Recognizing diversity
• Achieving gender equality
• Investing in children
• Ensuring a secure environment for children and
  parents