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Childlessness among Women aged 40 to 44 Years by Marital Status and Educa- tional Attainment in Germany and the USA, 1998
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... why is German fertility lower than that of other European countries? Castles (2002) shows that the first aspect of fertility revealed by a cross-national analysis is the introduction of clinical and supply methods of contraception, which have been available in most European countries since the late 1960s. As far as we are concerned, the fact that women born in 1945 or later have the power to control their own fertility does not explain why just one in every five women decides to have three children or more in Germany, while in France every third woman does. A second aspect of fertility change revealed by the cross-national analysis concerns labour: While fertility rates were likely to be highest where women’s participation in the labour force was low, this is no longer the case at the macro level. Esping-Andersen (1999), Castles (1998), and the OECD (1999) have all identified a similar reversal in the sphere of labour market behaviour, with high levels of fertility occurring precisely in those countries where women's labour force participation is greatest (Castles: 2002). The patterns of traditional factors (Catholicism, total divorce rate, service employment, female employment, female labour force, female tertiary education and female unemployment) that influence levels of fertility have complete reversal. As Castles mentions, this points to a world in which fertility is now associated with weak family-oriented values and high levels of female employment opportu- nity. Our analysis shows that in Germany the decision to have a child is still associated with the decision to marry. For this reason, we cannot find a link between weak family-oriented values and high fertility. The same is also true of the United States. Exploring childlessness in 1998 the American Bureau of Census identified family status as the most important factor (Bachu: 1999). Whereas in the United States, childlessness also increases with higher educational attainment, this is not the case in Germany as long as the marital status (never married or married at least once) variable is controlled: Women with university degrees who were married at least once or were never married are not found to be more frequently childless compared to women with lower educational attainment and the same marital status (Figure ...
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Citations
... Working mothers are often seen in Germany as not devoting themselves quite adequately to their children. According to ISSP data from 2004 (Bertram et al. 2006), the role of the working mother and the role of wife and mother are not highly regarded, whereas in the USA both roles are seen in a very positive light. ...
Children’s opportunities to develop according to their talents and competencies and to establish trust in the adults with whom they live their neighbourhoods, kindergardens, schools and municipalities also crucially influence the future of the society in which they grow up. Yet, international comparisons have until recently centred on resource availability, material wellbeing and health outcomes. However, initiatives such as the OECD/PISA and WHO surveys of ‘healthy lifestyles among school-aged children’ have explored child well-being along several dimensions. Building on these surveys, the nnocenti Report Card No 7 (20076) ‘Child Poverty in Perspective; An Overview of Child-wellbeing in Rich Countries’ ompares child wellbeing along six dimensions including material wellbeing, health and safety, educational well-being, family and peer relationships, behaviours and risk, and children’s subjective sense of wellbeing.
... Andererseits wird der Mutter und Hausfrau auch keine besondere Wertschätzung entgegengebracht. So wird in Deutschland nach den Daten des ISSP 2004 (Bertram et al., 2006 ) sowohl die Rolle der berufstätigen Mutter wie die Rolle der Hausfrau und Mutter als wenig erstrebenswert eingestuft, während in den USA beide Rollen von der Bevölkerung sehr positiv eingeschätzt werden. (Shonkoff/Phillips, 2000). ...
Die Chancen von Kindern, sich in ihrer Lebensumwelt entsprechend ihren Fähigkeiten und Kompetenzen entwickeln zu können und Vertrauen zu den Erwachsenen aufzubauen, mit denen sie in Elternhaus, Nachbarschaft, Kindergarten, Schule und Gemeinde zusammenleben oder zusammen sind, entscheiden auch über die Zukunft der Gesellschaft, in der sie aufwachsen. Internationale Vergleiche stellten lange fast ausschließlich das materielle Risiko von Kindern in den Mittelpunkt. Die Bildungsvergleiche der OECD/PISA und die Übersichten der WHO zu gesundheitsbezogenen Verhaltensweisen von Schulkindern haben die Perspektive erweitert. Darauf aufbauend vergleicht die Innocenti Report Card 7 (2007) ‘Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child-wellbeing in Rich Countries’ die Situation von Kindern anhand der sechs Dimensionen: Materielle Lage, Gesundheit und Sicherheit, Bildung, die Beziehungen zu Eltern und Freunden, die Risiken im Alltag und das subjektive Wohlbefinden von Kindern.
... Andererseits wird der Mutter und Hausfrau auch keine besondere Wertschätzung entgegengebracht. So wird in Deutschland nach den Daten des ISSP 2004 (Bertram et al., 2006 ) sowohl die Rolle der berufstätigen Mutter wie die Rolle der Hausfrau und Mutter als wenig erstrebenswert eingestuft, während in den USA beide Rollen von der Bevölkerung sehr positiv eingeschätzt werden. ...
Children’s opportunities to develop according to their talents and competencies and to establish trust in the adults with whom they live their neighbourhoods, kindergardens, schools and municipalities also crucially influence the future of the society in which they grow up. Yet, international comparisons have until recently centred on resource availability, material wellbeing and health outcomes. However, initiatives such as the OECD/PISA and WHO surveys of ‘healthy lifestyles among school-aged children’ have explored child well-being along several dimensions. Building on these surveys, the Innocenti Report Card No 7 (20076) ‘Child Poverty in Perspective; An Overview of Child-wellbeing in Rich Countries’ compares child wellbeing along six dimensions including material wellbeing, health and safety, educational well-being, family and peer relationships, behaviours and risk, and children’s subjective sense of wellbeing.
What proportion of women bear what proportion of children? Is reproduction concentrated among relatively few women or is it more equally spread among most women? We address these questions by examining concentration curves and summary statistics for female cohorts with completed fertility in the United States and 18 European countries. Concentration of reproduction designates the amount of inter-individual diversity among women in respect to the number of children they have and is measured by the concentration ratio and by the Havehalf and Halfhave statistics. The decline in the concentration of reproduction described by prior studies has more recently reversed first in the United States and then in western and eastern Europe. At present, the concentration of reproduction tends to be increasing. This trend is predominantly determined by growing childlessness. Increases in the share of women with one child and decreases in the share of women with two children produce additional effects in some countries. The concentration of reproduction is especially high in West Germany and English-speaking countries, and low in most eastern European countries. It is only for the United States that our data con. firm the strong negative correlation between the level of average fertility and concentration found by earlier studies. It appears that the relationship varies across countries and time. In western countries lower average fertility and a higher concentration of reproduction are found among highly educated women; the least educated groups experience higher average fertility and lower concentration of reproduction. This is not the case in countries of eastern Europe. Even in populations with significant fertility differences between racial and social groups, the total amount of diversity is mainly determined by within-group rather than inter-group variation. Monitoring of concentration of reproduction provides important information for making decisions concerning social and family policies.
