Demography and gender regimes: The case of Italians and ethnic traditions

In proposing measures that might improve adverse projected population futures, many demographers have endorsed feminist demands for family-friendly social policies and gender equity in the home. This paper provides a constructive critique of some versions of this argument. Without presenting new empirical data, it makes a case for the use of alternative conceptual tools in study design. It does so by focusing on three underpinnings of claims that fertility is lowest in countries with the greatest disparity between public and private patriarchy. Using Italy and Italians as an example, the paper discusses empirical measurements of the domestic division of labour, depictions of Italian family traditions and theorizations of family dynamics more generally, and wider understandings of modernity and tradition, both on the canvas of grand theory and within ethnographies of Italian families. The paper concludes with examples of studies that use the suggested conceptual framework.