Births

• Changes in women's position in the 20th century


  • Legal equality with men-like right to vote
  • More educational opportunities-girls do better than boys now
  • Decline in infant mortality rate
• Infant mortality rate (IMR)

  The number of infants who die before their first birthday per 1,000 babies born alive, per year
• Decline in IMR


  Birth rates have fallen too-parents are no longer replacing the children they've lost because the newborns are more likely to survive
• Reasons for the decline in IMR

  • More women in paid employment--laws outlaw unequal pay/sex discrimination
  • Change in attitudes-to family life/women's role
  • Easier access to divorce
  • Control over own fertility-access to abortion/reliable contraception
• Harper (2012)


  Women's education is biggest factor in falling rates because educated women are using family planning and see other possibilities beyond housewife/mother. This means they delay childbearing for a career
• Reasons for the decline in IMR

  • Improved housing and sanitation
  • Better nutrition
  • Better knowledge of hygiene/child health and welfare
  • Improved services for mothers and children
  • Improvements in the medical industry-mass immunisations and better use of antibiotics
• The medical industry has also improved a lot-has led to decline in maternal mortality as there was mass immunisations and better use of antibiotics
• Birth rate


  Number of live births per 1,000 of the population per year
• Fertility rate


  Average number of children women who are childbearing age (15-44) will have
• Both birth rate and fertility rate in the UK have fallen significantly over the years. In 1900, the birth rate was 28.7, but had fallen to approximately 12.2 in 2014
• Child-centredness


  Childhood has now been constructed as uniquely important-families have less children so they can focus on the quality of their child's lives
• Children as an economic liability


  Children used to be an economic asset who were sent to work, but a change of law and norms have ended this. This means parents must provide for their children- and there's a norm about what materials a child should get from their parents. The cost of raising children has risen, a financial pressure that discourages parents from having bigger families
• Dependency ratio


  The relationship between the size of the working population and the size of the non-working (dependent) population
• As families are having less children

  The dependency ratio (working people/non-working people) is affected, there will be less young adults. This makes a smaller working population, increasing the burden of dependency
• Low birth rate also affects public services/politics - there'll be less need for schools and child health services, and the cost of maternity/paternity leave would be affected. However, the government can decide to make smaller class sizes instead of reducing the number of schools
• Future trends - Family sizes have fallen due to the decline in birth rates. However, this has changed in recent years due to the increase in immigration-mothers from outside of the UK account for 25% of all births in 2011
• Smaller families means women have more freedom to go to work which means an increase in dual-earner households. However, middle-class couples can still have bigger families as they have time for work, and money to afford childcare