Peter McDonald, Professor and Head, Demography Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University Recent theoretical discussion has postulated that low fertility in advanced countries is attributable to low levels of gender equity. Low gender equity is evidenced in the lack of support for women to combine paid employment and childrearing; tax-transfer systems that remain based on the male-breadwinner model of the family; and the retention of gender-oriented roles within the family. Hence, it is argued that an increase in gender equity is a precondition of a rise in fertility from very low levels. At the same time, theorists argue that, in less developed countries, higher levels of gender equity are a necessary condition for achieving lower fertility. The article addresses this apparent contradiction by distinguishing two types of gender equity: gender equity in individual-oriented institutions and gender equity in family-oriented institutions. The argument is made that the transition from very high fertility to replacement-level fertility has been associated with a gradual increase in gender equity primarily within the family itself. In contrast, the further movement to very low fertility is associated with a rapid shift toward high levels of gender equity in individual institutions such as education and market employment, in combination with persistent low levels of gender equity within the family and in family-oriented institutions. [26, no. 3 (Sep 00): 427–439]
Philippe Fargues, Director of Research, Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, Paris This article examines atypical trends of birth rates and fertility—their irregular time trends and relatively high levels—among Palestinians and Israelis in light of the protracted conflict between them and related political developments. Migration, in itself a major dimension of the conflict, has been formative in contrasting evolutions of fertility: convergence among the Jews, originating from various countries but gradually coalescing in Jewish Israeli society, as opposed to divergence for the Palestinians, members of the same initial society but dispersed by the conflict and subjected to political and socioeconomic conditions varying with their place of residence. Demography is at stake in the conflict, and pronatalism becomes a dimension of nationalism, for Palestinians as well as for Israelis. Political and civil institutions influence fertility through redistribution of resources that subsidize procreation. For both sides, it seems that belligerence has produced excess fertility. [26, no. 3 (Sep 00): 441–482]
Cynthia B. Lloyd, Senior Associate and Director of Social Science Research, Policy Research Division, Population Council
Carol E. Kaufman, Healthy Ways Project Director, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver
Paul Hewett, Staff Research Associate, Policy Research Division, Population Council In 1980 Caldwell hypothesized that the time of the onset of the fertility transition in developing countries would be linked with the achievement of "mass formal schooling." This article applies Demographic and Health Survey data to assess schooling patterns and trends for 23 sub-Saharan African countries, using the percentage of 15–19-year olds who have completed at least four years of schooling as an indicator of progress in education. As background to that assessment, the article includes a review of the sparse literature on the links between children's schooling and fertility decline. The analysis strongly supports Caldwell's hypothesis with empirical evidence of the much stronger negative relationship between fertility decline and grade 4 attainment in those countries that have attained mass-schooling levels than in those that have not yet achieved such levels. [26, no. 3 (Sep 00): 483–515]
Laurie F. DeRose, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Center on Population, Gender, and Social Inequality, University of Maryland, College Park
Maitreyi Das, graduate student, Department of Sociology, Center on Population, Gender, and Social Inequality, University of Maryland, College Park
Sara R. Millman, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Political Science, University of HawaiiHilo The literature on gender differentials in nutrition demonstrates that the calorie intake of females is generally as adequate as that of males at all ages. Female disadvantage in micronutrient intake is, however, frequent. Pregnant and lactating women are disadvantaged relative to both men and other women. In South Asia there is evidence that boys are advantaged over girls in food intake at some ages, but the evidence for male advantage in access to health care is far stronger. The authors argue that nutrition interventions are best targeted when the incidence of female disadvantage is better understood and, similarly, that interventions to improve women's status should be focused on objectives other than calorie intake in most communities. However, standards for measuring adequacy incorporate norms for female body size and physical activity that may uncritically accept the notion that females are more physically passive. Maintaining adequacy by these standards could perpetuate low levels of female functioning. [26, no. 3 (Sep 00): 517–547]
- On the Quantum and Tempo of Fertility: Comment
Evert van Imhoff
Nico Keilman
- On the Quantum and Tempo of Fertility: Limits to the Bongaarts-Feeney Adjustment
Young J. Kim
Robert Schoen
- On the Quantum and Tempo of Fertility: Reply (PDF)
John Bongaarts
Griffith Feeney
Data and Perspectives Andrew Noymer, doctoral student in sociology and demography, University of California at Berkeley
Michel Garenne, directeur de recherche, Centre français sur la population et le développement The 1918 influenza epidemic had a marked and fairly long-lasting effect on the sex differential in mortality in the United States. After 1918 women lost most of their mortality advantage over men and the female/male gap did not regain its pre-epidemic level until the 1930s. An analysis of causes of deaths shows a link with tuberculosis. We conjecture the existence of a selection effect, whereby many 1918 influenza deaths were among tuberculous persons, so that tuberculosis death rates dropped in later years, disproportionately among males. Age- and sex-specific data by cause of death corroborate this hypothesis. [26, no. 3 (Sep 00): 565–581]
- Dudley Kirk on Population Changes and Prospective Power Relations after World War II: A View from 1943
- Joseph Lopreato and Timothy Crippen, Crisis in Sociology: The Need for Darwin, reviewed by J. Richard Udry
- Cormac Ó Gráda, Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory, reviewed by Stephen G. Wheatcroft
- Joshua Cole, The Power of Large Numbers: Population, Politics, and Gender in Nineteenth-Century France, reviewed by Etienne van de Walle
- Ronald Walter Greene, Malthusian Worlds: U.S. Leadership and the Governing of the Population Crisis, reviewed by Adrian Hayes
- Peter Skerry, Counting on the Census? Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics, reviewed by Reynolds Farley
- Onn Winckler, Demographic Developments and Population Policies in Ba'thist Syria, reviewed by Allan G. Hill
- Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh with Thea Lee, Field Guide to the Global Economy
- Reginald Appleyard (ed.), Migration and Development
- Richard J.F. Day, Multiculturalism and the History of Canadian Diversity
- Karin Evans, The Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and the Search for a Missing Past
- Sharon K. Houseknecht and Jerry G. Pankhurst (eds.), Family, Religion, and Social Change in Diverse Societies
- Brian Nichiporuk, The Security Dynamics of Demographic Factors
- Rayna Rapp, Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America
- The Council of Economic Advisers on the Changing American Family
- The United Nations on the Demographic Impact of the AIDS Epidemic
- Population in the UN Environment Programme's Global Environment Outlook 2000
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