Changing Linkages between Gender Role Attitudes and Fertility in the Selected European Countries During 1990-2017

Dovile Galdauskaite , Vytautas Magnus University

Recently, scholars have focused on gender equality, gender equity or gender revolution (McDonald 2013; Goldscheider et al. 2015) as principal factors in explaining low fertility trends at micro and macro levels. Despite the growing number and diversity of studies, relation between fertility and gender equality dimensions is inconsistent. The aim of this paper is to describe the changing linkages between gender role attitudes and fertility in Lithuania, Sweden, Estonia, Austria, France and Italy during 1990-2017. Data and methods. Nine datasets from five international surveys are analysed - Population Policy Acceptance, Generations and Gender, European Values, International Social Survey Programme and European Social Survey. In this study cluster analysis is used to identify models of gender role attitudes and logistic regression is used to assess the relation between fertility and models of gender role attitudes. Results. The analysis shows that, despite the convergence of gender role attitudes towards egalitarianism, there are increasing differences between models representing gender role attitudes. In terms of gender role attitudes, Lithuania is the most traditional and the slowest in transition to egalitarianism. While Sweden is not only the most egalitarian but its pace of change toward egalitarianism is the fastest. The findings reveal a relatively similar pattern across countries, with those who support the most traditional attitudes toward gender roles being more likely to have children. However, other trends emerge in Lithuania and Sweden, as in some cases, those who have not expressed the most traditional views on gender roles are more likely to have children.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe