Fertility and social change: the neglected contribution of men's approaches to becoming partners and parents

Jamieson, L., Milburn, K.B., Simpson, R. and Wasoff, F. (2010) Fertility and social change: the neglected contribution of men's approaches to becoming partners and parents. Sociological Review, 58(3), pp. 463-485. (doi: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.2010.01924.x)

Abstract

Attitude survey and interview data are mobilised to address neglect of men's contribution to low fertility and wider social change in families and relationships. Men's attitudes are as relevant as women's to understanding fertility behaviour. However, fertility behaviour can only be understood in the context of a package of changes in gender relations and family life. Data from a random sample of men aged 18–49 surveyed in the Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey 2005/06 are combined with in-depth interviews conducted in 2007 with 75 men aged 25–44 identified through the Scottish Household Survey as not living in co-resident partnership arrangements. Both datasets encompass the age span conventionally associated with having children and men who were the potential partners of women delaying a first child until their 30s. They allow consideration of the impact of social contact with parents and children on men's fertility intentions and how the role of provider features in men's views about parenting. The interviews focus on men who have fallen out of, or have not entered, co-resident partnerships and examine the relationship between partnering and parenting. In combination the data suggest how men act as a complementary or contradictory downward drag on women's fertility and that their role has been underestimated in understanding the package of family change of which low fertility is a part.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Simpson, Dr Roona
• Authors: Jamieson, L., Milburn, K.B., Simpson, R., and Wasoff, F.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General); H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Sociological Review
• ISSN: 0038-0261
• Published Online: 20 July 2010