Essay on Factors Associated With Long-Term Decline in Fertility in Developed Countries

In this section, the factors which have brought about a change from high fertility to low fertility in developed countries will be discussed in detail.

1. Motivational Factors:

Motivational factors have played an important role in bringing about a change from high fertility to low fertility. Demographers are of the opinion that, over the years, tremendous changes have occurred in the attitudes of couples towards reproduction.

It appears that they have moved away from a strong positive desire to have children to a strong motivation for a limited family.

It is difficult to provide research evidence in support of this shift in the attitudinal and motivational forces which came in the wake of social and economic conditions arising out of the Industrial Revolution.

It is, however, quite evident that these forces operated at the level of individual couples, who translated into action the desire for a small family, for the social atmosphere was not favourable to birth control, nor were there any effective means of contraception.

The State in most, and the Church in all, cases did not approve of birth control. In fact, as Gunnar Myrdal put it, “All the forces of organised society the law, officialdom, the clergy, educators, the press, the medical profession were mobilised to prevent birth control from spreading.”

Yet the strong motivation of individual couples drove them to the achievement of their desired goals of having small families.

2. Economic and Social Factors:

The phenomenon of fertility decline in the now developed countries is very complex. Several interacting and overlapping economic and social factors were responsible for the transition from high to low fertility.

It follows therefore that no single factor can be held responsible for this fertility decline.

In what follows, some economic and social factors are reviewed in the context of fertility declines. These are: (i) industrialisation; (ii) urbanisation; (iii) rising levels of living and increased costs of bringing up children; (iv) family functions and structure; (v) relationship between mortality and fertility; and (vi) social mobility.

The process of industrialisation began towards the middle of the eighteenth century, first in England and later throughout Europe and North America. It brought in its wake several far- reaching economic and social changes, which in turn brought about fertility declines.

Most important, the process of industrialisation initiated the process of modern economic growth; the per capita productivity increased and real income rose.

Advancements in science and technology further improved the productivity of labour for they created conditions in which workers received better education and training, worked shorter hours as a result of social reforms, and had better nutrition because of increased availability of food supplies. Several structural changes also took place about the same time.

The share of agriculture to total product and t in the labour force decreased; there was a corresponding rise in the share of industry and other non-agricultural sector: Industrialisation was accompanied by urbanization.

Declines mortality was registered because of agricultural, economic am social development that came in the wake of industrialisation.

Several changes accompanied growing industrialisation am urbanisation, which had implications for fertility decline, particular interest are the changes which took place in the structure and functions of the family the basic unit of society.

The family lost its function as an economic unit, in the sense that it ceased be a producing unit and became only a consumer unit. With the introduction of laws which prohibited child labour and education compulsory, the economic usefulness of children to their parents was drastically reduced.

In fact, they became a liability because of the increasing costs and lengthening duration education.

At the same time, there were declines in mortality especially infant and child mortality; more children survived and the burden of bringing them up fell entirely on the nuclear family! Parents soon realised that, because of declining mortality, there was no need to have a large number of children in the hope that a few at least would survive.

They therefore had fewer children the advantages of rising real incomes flowing from industrialisation were in danger of being nullified by large families, especially because of the rising costs of bringing up children.

A large family was therefore, seen as a threat to maintenance of a certain standard life, and couples responded to this threat by having a smaller number of children. Rising costs of child rearing was thus an important factor in fertility declines in developed countries.

Certain measures initiated by the Governments of various countries also contributed to changes in the attitudes of parents towards their children.

Financial responsibility, for medicines and medical treatment, provision of old age security, etc., which were originally shouldered by the family, were taken over by the State in many countries.

Children, therefore, were no longer the only source of old age security. With the spread of education among women, social attitudes to women, as well as the attitudes of women to themselves, underwent profound changes. It was realised that a woman need not be restricted to her age-old role of homemaker and bearer of children.

Women began to participate in gainful employment which provided and alternative to child-bearing and child-rearing. Education was also responsible for bringing about a rational outlook, free from religious dogma; and this rational outlook facilitated the acceptance of the idea of fertility control.

Moreover, flowing from educational opportunities and rising prosperity was the aspiration on the part of the individual to rise in the social scale. Too many children were perceived to be an obstacle in the attainment of this objective to climb the social ladder; and the natural result was the limiting of the size of the family.

According to frank W. Notestein, the noted demographer, the growth of a huge and mobile city population largely changed the corporate family way of traditional society; instead came individualism, which was characterised by increasing personal aspirations to move upward.

Large families became “a progressively difficult undertaking; expensive and difficult for a population ever increasingly freed from old taboos and increasingly willing to solve its problems rather than accept them.”

Notestein pointed out in 1953 that the decline in fertility in the West occurred as a result of the growth of an urban industrial society. He concluded that the development of technology was the underlying factor for fertility transition.

He also pointed out that industrialisation and urbanisation resulted in “the development of rational and secular point of view; the growing awareness of the world and modern techniques through proper education improved health, and the acceptance of alternatives to early marriage and child-bearing as a means of livelihood and prestige of women.”

The reasons for the recent declines and low current levels of fertility in most of the developed countries may be summarised as follows: (1) Development of improved methods of fertility control and increasing use of the most effective methods; (2) Liberalised abortion laws and extensive grounds and facilities for abortion; (3) Decreasing desire for large families; (4) Rising costs of rearing child; (5) The increasing trend of women’s employment in paid jobs outside the home; (6) Instability and changes in the values attached to the rewards and penalties of parenthood in the context of other needs and aspirations.