Sex roles and fertility: which influences which?

Abstract

Research problems arising from the relationships between sex roles family size and fertility are reviewed. Because studies have generally focused on a single one of these measures it has been difficult to evaluate their relative importance in predicting family size preferences or fertility. In addition research has generally been based on the premise that sex roles affect fertility preferences and thereby affect fertility itself. The influence of fertility on sex roles and family size preferences has not been established. A pilot study carried out in Toronto among teenage girls and their mothers was designed to broach these research problems. The study which included controls for the effects of socioeconomic factors and religion used Multiple Classification Analysis to evaluate the relative improtance of a variety of sex role attitudes in predicting family size preference. Results indicate that sex roles and family size preferences constitute an interdependent motivational system but that different sex roles are not of equal determinative strength within this system. Two attitudinal variables the value placed on children and a favorable attitude towards work strongly influence the fertility preferences of both mothers and daughters in this sample. Results also indicate that the motivational system which favors childbearing and home roles and plays down employment roles is formed early in an individuals life and exerts an influence on childbearing from the time of marriage and onwards.