birth rates

Question 1

definitions

Answer 1

• total fertility rate - average number of children women will have during their fertility years
• 2014 = 1.83

Question 2

changed in women’s position

Answer 2

• legal equality of men (rights to vote)
• increased education opportunities - girls now do better than boys
• more women in paid employment - equal pay
• changed in attitudes to family life and women’s role
• assess to divorce
  access to abortio and contraception - women get control
• harper- women education opportunities important reason for long term fall in birth and fertility rates - led to women’s change in mindset resulting in fewer children - see other possibilities in life other than traditional role of housewife or mother - many choosing to delay marriage, childbearing or not have children to pursue a career (2012, 1 in 5 women aged 45 was childless - double the number of 25 years earlier)
• cultural norms shifted about family size - smaller families become norm.

Question 3

decline in infant mortality rate

Answer 3

• IMR measures number of infants who die before first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year
• led to fall in birth rate - if many infants die, parents have more children to replace those they’ve lost - increasing birth rate
• 1900 - IMR in uk was 154 - higher than those in less developed counties today (Afghanistan was 117 in 2014)
• 20th century, IMR fell: improved housing and sanitation (water, reduce diseases), better nutrition for mother and baby, knowledge of hygiene , improve services.
• 1950 - medical factors play great role, mass immunisation for diseases, antibiotics

Question 4

children now economic liability

Answer 4

• until late 19th century, children were economic assets to parents as they were sent out to work and earn income
• however since then they’ve become ecomomic liability’s
• LAWS - banning child labour, compulsory schooling and raising leaving age so children are dependant for longer
• CHANGING NORMS - about what children expect from parents in material terms - cost of bringing up children has risen
• parents less able or willing to have large family

Question 5

child centredness

Answer 5

• childhood now socially constructed as important period of individuals life
• encourage shift from family quantity to family quality - prefer fewer children and lavish more attention to resources to those few

Question 6

future trends in birth rates

Answer 6

-slight increase since 2001
- increase of immigration - mothers from outside UK have higher fertility rate than those born in UK
- babies born from outside UK accounted for 25% of births in 2011

Question 7

effects - the family

Answer 7

• smaller families mean women more likely to g out to work, creating dual earner couple
• however better off couples may be able to have larger families and still afford childcare and both go to work

Question 8

the effect - dependency ratio

Answer 8

• relationship between side of working population and size of non working, dependant ratio
• earning, savings, taxes of working population must support dependant population , which children make up large part of dependant ratio - so fall of children reduces ‘burden of dependency’ on working population
• however in long term, fewer babies means fewer young adults and smaller working population so burden of dependency may increase again

Question 9

effects - public services and policies

Answer 9

-lower birth rate has consequences for public services:
- fewer schools, maternity and health services may be needed
- affects cost of maternity and paternity leave and types of housing needed to be built
- however many of these are political decisions - reduce size of classroom rather than amount of schools

Question 10

effects - ageing population

Answer 10

• average age of population is rising
• ther are more old people relative to young people