The Impact of Subjective Work Control, Job Strain and Work?CFamily Conflict on Fertility Intentions: a European Comparison

The link between employment and fertility is often only examined by focussing on women's labour market status or the impact of part- versus full-time employment. This study introduces a new explanation by extending research to examine how women's subjective perceptions of control or autonomy over work, job strain and work-family conflict influence fertility intentions. National-level measures of childcare enrolment under the age of three and the occurrence of part-time work are also included to examine their relation to fertility intentions and their interplay with perceptions of work. Using data from 23 countries from the 2004/5 European Social Survey (ESS), multilevel logistic regression models of fertility intentions are estimated separately for women without children and women with one child. Women with higher levels of work control are significantly more likely to intend to have a second child. Higher levels of job strain (time pressure) significantly lower fertility intentions for mothers in contexts where childcare availability is low. The prevalence of part-time work amongst the female work force significantly predicts the intention to become a mother but has different effects for women who work part-time themselves compared with full-time employees.     

Second and Third Births in Armenia and Moldova: An Economic Perspective of Recent Behaviour and Current Preferences

Little is known about fertility in Armenia and Moldova, the two countries that have both, according to national statistics, experienced very low levels of fertility during the dramatic economic, social and political restructuring in the last two decades. This article fills this gap and explores recent fertility behaviour and current fertility preferences using 2005 Demographic and Health Survey data. Educational differences in fertility decline and the association between socioeconomic indicators and fertility preferences are considered from an economic perspective. Special emphasis is given to determining whether and how diverging economic conditions in the two countries as well as crisis conditions may have influenced fertility. Second parity progression ratios (PPR) reveal a positive relationship between the degree of decline from 1990 to 2005 and education, whereas third PPR declines appear the greatest for women with both the lowest and highest education. In both countries, logistic regression results suggest that working women are more likely to want a second child, as well as want the child sooner university than later in Armenia, and the wealthiest women in Armenia have a higher odds of wanting a third child. Dual-jobless couples are less likely to want a second child in Moldova and more likely to postpone the next child in Armenia. These findings offer some insight into the shifts in fertility behaviour in these two post-Soviet countries and suggest that despite diverging economic trajectories and a lessening commitment to the two-child norm in Moldova, determinants of fertility behaviour and preferences have remained similar in both countries.     

Demographic change and the supply of potential family supporters in Britain, Finland and France in the period 1911–2050/Changements démographiques et disponibilité des soutiens familiaux en Grande-Bretagne, en Finlande et en France entre 1911 et 2050

We consider the contribution of changes in mortality and fertility to availability of living mothers and living children among older people in Britain, Finland and France. The proportion of people aged around 60 with a mother alive will more than double between those born in 1911 and 1970 before starting to decline slightly. Conversely, a higher proportion of elderly people are likely to have a surviving child than for any generation ever born in all three countries in the next quarter century or so, with about 85% of 80-year-old women having at least one surviving child, and about two-thirds having two or more.     

妇女当家会强化低生育水平吗?——一项关于家庭权力与生育决策的实证研究

妇女地位的提升对降低生育率有着重要作用。在低生育水平的湖北宜昌农村地区,数据分析表明,家庭权力在生育决策中产生重要影响,男性的生育观念更为传统,男性主导家庭权力可以提高家庭的生育意愿,而女性拥有越来越自主的生育决策权力以及更理性的、以核心家庭幸福为准则的生育观,但在这部分地区,没有证据显示妇女当家会直接降低生育率。因此,在妇女家庭权力日渐提升的趋势下,为防范极低生育水平、提升农村家庭的发展能力、为妇女生育提供良好的家庭支持和社会支持环境尤为重要。     

Population Policy in Early Victorian England

This paper argues that the generally-held belief that there was no population policy in Great Britain during its fertility transition is incorrect. There were, in fact, clear and implicit and explicit policies in place by the early 19th Century which aimed at reducing population growth. These were negative, involving elimination of family allowances (the famous Poor Laws), and also positive, through subsidised emigration and ``transportation' of felons to the colonies. Moreover, a changed ``ideation' on the part of the nation's political, intellectual and spiritual leaders, changed norms about marriage and child-bearing, raising sharply the perceived economic and psychic cost of children. Lacking acceptable means to control pregnancies, many working class women resorted to abortion, infanticide and child abandonment to reduce their family size. The policy's actual impact on overall fertility is uncertain but it did constitute a deliberate attempt by society to affect demographic behaviour and outcomes.     

河南省部分农村地区育龄妇女生育意愿分析

通过多阶段整群抽样方法对2 098名河南农村育龄妇女进行横断面调查和利用SAS9.0软件对调查数据进行分析,我省育龄妇女中希望生育2个或2个以下孩子的占99.28%;期望生男孩的是期望生女孩的1.8倍;年龄越小,对生男孩子的期望越低。这说明河南农村育龄妇女生育观念有了较大的转变。     

拐卖妇女、儿童罪的实行行为只有“拐卖”

刑法第240条第2款不是关于实行行为的规定,而是关于共犯行为的注意性规定,拐卖妇女、儿童罪的实行行为只有"拐卖";该罪的法益是被拐卖妇女、儿童的人身自由、生命、身体的安全及人格尊严;该罪以卖出即对被拐卖人支配的转移为既遂;该罪是即成犯;拐卖妇女、儿童罪与非法拘禁罪、收买被拐卖的妇女、儿童罪、拐骗儿童罪之间存在竞合关系。     

Child Survival and Fertility of Refugees in Rwanda

In the 1960s and 1990s, internal strife in Rwanda has caused a mass flow of refugees into neighbouring countries. This article explores the cumulated fertility of Rwandan refugee women and the survival of their children. To this end, we use a national survey conducted between 1999 and 2001 and covering 6,420 former refugee and non-refugee households. The findings support old-age security theories of reproductive behaviour: refugee women had higher fertility but their children had lower survival chances. Newborn girls suffered more than boys, suggesting that the usual sex differential in child survival observed in most populations changes under extreme living conditions.     

马克思主义妇女理论视域下职业女性面对“二孩”政策时的生存境况

“二孩”政策的出台对我国人口、经济、社会发展都将起到重要作用。这一政策能否取得预期效果,与作为人口生产重要载体的女性的生育意愿有着密切的关系。而作为从事社会生产和人口生产双重劳动的职业女性,其生育意愿受到很多不确定性因素的影响。以马克思主义妇女理论来分析职业女性在二孩政策下的实际生存处境,对于我们进一步完善该项政策的各项配套改革以及更好地关注女性生存与发展都具有重要的现实意义。     

The dual strategy: Motherhood and the work contract in Scandinavia

Mothers' employment in the Scandinavian countries is generally characterised by high employment rates. At the same time the fertility level is higher than in most European countries. Scandinavian women have to a large extent developed a dual strategy towards employment and children: Most women choose to have at least two children and they continue their employment after and between births. In this paper we discuss how this dual strategy can be explained, taking the case of Norway. We argue that the strategy of Norwegian mothers is based on arrangements in working life which enable employed mothers to pursue motherhood within the work contract.     

关于我国生育政策与生育水平的几点思考

通过回顾梳理现存文献和进行国际比较认为,中国的总和生育率已经大大低于更替水平,且现行生育政策仅能有效控制大约6%的育龄妇女。在低生育水平已持续了近20年、理想子女数大约仅为2个孩子、现行生育政策对个体生育行为的控制作用大大减弱的情势下,未来维持低生育水平主要取决于经济社会的发展。只要能够有效控制各类人群的第三胎生育,推行现行生育政策与＂放宽二孩、杜绝三孩＂的生育政策之间差别就不会大;而如果超生是某些人的特权,就既会大大降低生育政策的公信力,也不利于稳定适度的低生育水平。     

Couples’ First Child Intentions and Disagreement: An Analysis of the Italian Case

The aim of this article is to examine the determinants of couples’ childbearing intentions, by explicitly taking into account the agreement or disagreement of the two members of the couple. The relevance of the partner’s reproductive intentions has been well recognised in the literature, but few studies have provided in-depth analyses of the fertility plans of both partners. In our study, we used the household-level data from a survey on “Family and Social Subjects”, carried out by the Italian National Statistical Office in 2003, which provides characteristics on both partners. We adopted a couple’s perspective which allows us to give a unitary picture of the concordant or discordant nature of partners’ first child intentions. We found that a lack of agreement in the reproductive decision-making process is likely to occur in the Italian couples where the role of the woman is less traditional. In particular, cohabitant, highly educated and working women are more likely to be in disagreement with their partners in the decisions concerning having a first child. Being religious may be also a source of discordance in the couples’ reproductive plans. Our findings support the utility of taking a couple-based approach in studies on fertility intentions.     

Are Individuals’ Desired Family Sizes Stable? Evidence from West German Panel Data

Using West German panel data constructed from the 1988 and 1994/1995 wave of the DJI Familiensurvey, we analyze the stability and determinants of individuals’ total desired fertility. We find considerable variation of total desired fertility across respondents and across interviews. In particular, up to 50% of individuals report a different total desired fertility across survey waves. Multivariate analysis confirms the importance of background factors including growing up with both parents, having more siblings, and being Catholic for preference formation. Consistent with the idea that life course experiences provide new information regarding the expected costs and benefits of different family sizes, the influence of background factors on total desired fertility is strong early in life and weakens as subsequent life course experiences, including childbearing, take effect. Accounting for unobserved individual heterogeneity, we estimate that an additional child may increase the total desired fertility of women with children by 0.14 children, less than what conventional estimates from cross-sectional data would have suggested.     

Children’s Sex and the Happiness of Parents

Demographers are interested in sex preferences for children because they can skew sex ratios and influence population-level fertility, parenting behavior, and family outcomes. Based on parity progression ratios, in most European countries, there are no sex preferences for a first child, but a strong preference for mixed-sex children. We hypothesize that mixed-sex preferences also influence parental happiness. Parents’ disappointment with a second child of the same sex as the first could have negative effects for parents and children. We use longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Study to examine parental happiness by the children’s sex and analyze whether these effects differ by parent’s sex, age, nativity, and educational attainment. The results are only partially consistent with predictions from parity progression ratios. As expected, parental happiness does not depend on the sex of the first child. We find weak evidence suggesting that two boys decrease happiness, but the findings are not consistent across German and British data or across subpopulations. Moreover, two girls do not reduce happiness. Although sex preferences influence fertility, they appear to have little impact on happiness, perhaps because of unobserved positive factors associated with having same-sex children.     

妇女儿童权益保障的现实问题与对策探讨

妇女儿童合法权益遭受侵害是现今社会人权建设道路上的一大障碍。当前,在推进经济建设、民主法制建设和社会主义和诣社会建设过程中,整个世界妇女儿童的人权建设也取得了新的成就。但妇女儿童相对来说仍属于社会中的弱势群体,他们的许多权利仍被排斥在人权之外,妇女和儿童的人权在许多情况下被漠视和侵害,这些均与我国的社会主义制度不相容。由此可见,要顺利实现社会主义和谐社会的建设,促进人权事业的发展,保障妇女儿童合法权益是一项重要的工作。     

Assessing Short-Term Fertility Intentions and Their Realisation Using the Generations and Gender Survey: Pitfalls and Challenges

The use of fertility intention questions to study individual childbearing behaviour has developed rapidly in recent decades. In Europe, the Generations and Gender Surveys are the main sources of cross-national data on fertility intentions and their realisation. This study investigates how an inconsistent implementation of a question about wanting a child now affects the cross-country comparability of intentions to have a child within the next three years and their realisation. We conduct our analysis separately for women and men at prime and late reproductive ages in Austria, France, Italy and Poland. The results show that the overall share of respondents intending to have a child at some point in their life is similar in all four analysed countries. However, once the time horizon and the degree of certainty of fertility intentions are included, substantial cross-country differences appear, particularly in terms of proceptive behaviour and, consequently, the realisation of fertility intentions. We conclude that the inconsistent questionnaire adaptation makes it very difficult to assess the role of country context in the realisation of childbearing intentions.     

生育政策调整目标实现的困境及破解--基于女性个体发展视角的分析

女性的生育行为是我国生育政策调整的落脚点,然而单纯的生育政策调整并不能对当前女性生育行为产生实质性影响。独生子女时代形塑的生育价值观念、工业经济催生的工具主义生育理性,有效地抵消了生育政策调整的预期效果。社会主义市场经济条件下,深度参与劳动力市场的女性更重视个体发展和个人价值的实现,个人与社会的关系得到强化,而与家庭的关系趋于弱化,然而生育行为易导致其个人发展陷入困境。由此,生育政策调整若要实现预期目标,需要补偿女性因生育行为所产生的损失,从社会政策体系方面构建有利于女性生育的环境,否则只是单纯地放宽生育子女数量和适度延长产假,无法激励女性生育,更无法改变女性生育于自身个体发展方面的不利现状。     

Native and Migrant Fertility Patterns in Greece: A Cohort Approach

This article examines fertility patterns and differentials between native women, and Albanian and Bulgarian immigrants, using data from the 2001 census of Greece on the reported numbers of children ever-born alive by citizenship. The analysis focuses on changing fertility timing and quantum of women born between 1950 and 1970, and reveals that cohort fertility is highest among Albanians and lowest among Bulgarians, while levels for native women are somewhere in between. Completed cohort fertility is decreasing over time for all nationalities, while the gap observed among the ethnic groups has been narrowing. Evidence based on the 2001 censuses of Albania and Bulgaria indicates that immigrants in Greece constitute, to some extent, selected groups, compared to the inhabitants of their countries of origin.     

女性就业保护政策亟待完善

中国法律对孕期、产期和哺乳期的在职女工实行就业保障,规定用人单位不能在“三期”解雇女工,但对正在寻找工作的求职女性的同类保护还基本上是一个空白。我国女性就业保障法规要不要明确限制用人单位对求职女性进行婚孕调查,要不要明确规定用人单位不能因为怀孕而拒收求职女性？笔者的回答是肯定的。第一,用人单位排斥求职孕妇应该被界定为性别歧视;第二,用人单位应该为孕妇分担生育责任,这应该是企业社会责任的一部分,政府也有义不容辞的责任,甚至应该比企业责任更大;第三,保障生育妇女的立法精神要前后统一,只有具体规定“不能以怀孕为由拒绝录用妇女”,才能使我国女性就业保障的立法精神在就业入口处与就业过程中前后统一,达到男女公平就业的目标。否则,我国现有法律所宣称的对怀孕、生育和哺乳女性的就业保护就显得不够真诚,这对女性是不公平的。     

Childcare Cash Benefits and Fertility Timing in Norway

In 1998 a new cash benefit for parents with young children was introduced in Norway. Its purpose was to provide a cash payment to parents who either preferred to care for their children at home or to compensate those who were not offered external childcare provision. It has been argued that the new policy encouraged women to stay at home with their children, possibly reducing labour supply. The policy was consequently considered gender-biased, creating reduced incentives for women to participate in the labour market and therefore encouraging a more traditional division of labour of husbands and wives. Given this background of the policy, we undertake an analysis in two parts. We ask first the question “who takes the cash benefit?” Second, by applying simple matching techniques, we ask the question “Do couples taking the benefit behave differently in terms of their fertility timing?” Using information from Norwegian registers we find that more traditional households (in a broad sense) are more likely to take the cash benefit. Those taking the benefit accelerate childbearing significantly, though the reasons why they do so varies by socio-economic groups.