Volume 29 - Article 40 | Pages 1097–1126
Domestic gender equality and childbearing in Sweden
By Frances Goldscheider, Eva Bernhardt, Maria Brandén
Abstract
Background: Sweden, which is among the most gender-equal societies in the world, combines 'modern' family patterns such as unmarried cohabitation, delayed parenthood, high maternal labor force participation, and high break-up rates - all usually linked with low birth rates - with relatively high fertility. Sweden also has a high level of shared parental responsibility for home and children.
Objective: After decades of late 20th century research showing that increasing gender equality in the workplace was linked with lower fertility, might gender equality in the home increase fertility?
Methods: Using data from the Swedish Young Adult Panel Study (YAPS), we use Cox regression to examine the effects on first, second, and third births of 1) holding attitudes about sharing equally in the care of the home and children, and 2) actual sharing in these domestic tasks.
Results: Our analysis shows that, measuring attitudes before the transition to parenthood and actual practice four years later, it is inconsistency between sharing attitudes and the actual division of housework that reduces the likelihood of continued childbearing, especially on second births among women.
Conclusions: As women are most likely to confront an inconsistent situation, with egalitarian ideals in a household without equal sharing, it is clear that having a partner who does not share housework is depressing Swedish fertility.
Author’s Affiliation
- Frances Goldscheider - Brown University, United States of America EMAIL
- Eva Bernhardt - Stockholms Universitet, Sweden EMAIL
- Maria Brandén - Linköpings Universitet, Sweden EMAIL
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
Attitudes toward work and parenthood following family-building transitions in Sweden: Identifying differences by gender and education
Volume 49 - Article 30
Introduction to the Special Collection on Finding Work-Life Balance: History, Determinants, and Consequences of New Bread-Winning Models in the Industrialized World
Volume 37 - Article 26
Division of housework and his and her view of housework fairness: A typology of Swedish couples
Volume 36 - Article 16
Geographical distance between child and parent after a union dissolution in Sweden, 1974–2011
Volume 48 - Article 17
Family migration in a cross-national perspective: The importance of institutional and cultural context
Volume 36 - Article 10
The forest and the trees: Industrialization, demographic change, and the ongoing gender revolution in Sweden and the United States, 1870-2010
Volume 36 - Article 6
Reconciling studies of men’s gender attitudes and fertility: Response to Westoff and Higgins
Volume 22 - Article 8
Sweden: Combining childbearing and gender equality
Volume 19 - Article 28
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
Demographic convergence in marriage timing: Intersecting gender and educational expansion
Volume 52 - Article 14
| Keywords:
age at marriage,
convergence,
cross-country,
education,
gender,
union formation
Job creation, job destruction, and fertility in Germany
Volume 52 - Article 13
| Keywords:
fertility,
gender,
Germany,
job creation,
job destruction,
labor market,
spatial modelling,
unemployment
Gender differences in routine housework among one-person households: A cross-national analysis
Volume 52 - Article 12
| Keywords:
cross-national research,
gender,
housework,
unipersonal households
The changing inter-relationship between partnership dynamics and fertility trends in Europe and the United States: A review
Volume 52 - Article 7
| Keywords:
childbearing,
Europe,
family complexity,
fertility,
fertility,
marriage,
partnership,
United States of America
Educational trends in cohort fertility by birth order: A comparison of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland
Volume 51 - Article 36
| Keywords:
birth order,
cohort analysis,
cross-national study,
England,
family size,
fertility,
Northern Ireland,
parity,
Scotland,
Wales
Cited References: 84
Download to Citation Manager
PubMed
Google Scholar