Investigation of whether Womens Education Influences Family Size - Literature review Example

Sociology Investigation of whether Women’s Education Influences Family Size ID Number Module and Number of Professor/ Tutor Date of Submission Summary This paper has investigated whether women’s education has an influence on their choice of family size. Although some findings reveal that the more educated women with greater autonomy bear fewer children as compared to less educated women across all social settings, there are variations to this in different countries. Higher levels of women’s education in developed countries are related to comparatively more number of children; whereas in developing countries women with lower educational attainment are found to have larger families as compared to their more educated counterparts. Overall, however, small levels of education as at the primary school stage do not affect fertility rates as much as education at secondary school and higher levels of education. The extent to which the social background is gender stratified with male dominance, affects not only the pace at which women’s educational attainment rises, but also the impact of women’s education on their fertility. In developed countries as in Europe with greater gender equality, directly inverse relationships are found between education and fertility. On the other hand, in the developing countries, the general association between women’s education and fertility is not always linear and inverse. A threshold of education marks the level beyond which significant negative differences in fertility occur. The highest thresholds exist in the developing countries, while in the more developed countries the thresholds are at the lowest levels of schooling. Investigation of whether Women’s Education Influences Family Size Introduction “Replacement level fertility is the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next” (Craig, 1994, p.20). In developed countries, replacement level fertility requires an average of 2.1 children per woman. Despite population size being estimated to grow until 2027, fertility will be limited to below replacement levels for all birth cohorts in the United Kingdom, as seen from 1950 onwards (Craig, 1994). Frejka and Calot (2001) reiterate that assessments of completed cohort fertility in most developed countries reveal a decline in the average number of children per woman. In alignment with the reduced levels of fertility, there is a decline in average desired family size. Further, evidence on the personal ideal number of children indicates that desired fertility has fallen below replacement level in the German-speaking parts of Europe (Goldstein et al., 2003). Rise in educational levels, particularly of women, is identified by population researchers to explain the decline in fertility. Heiland et al. (2005, p.1) observe that there is a negative association between women’s educational attainment, specifically post-secondary schooling, and average completed fertility, as recorded in a number of Western European countries such as Sweden, Norway, West Germany, Belgium and France. However, the role of educational attainment in childbearing is more multifaceted. Significantly, research evidence suggests that the family size preferences of well-educated women include the same number of children or even larger families as compared to women of average educational attainment (Kravdal, 2001). Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether women’s education influences the size of the family. Women’s Education, Fertility and Family Size “Education is widely regarded as the single most important variable affecting fertility” (Thomas-Slayter, 2003, p.233). Female education and completed family size are inversely related. On a statistical basis, across the globe, the higher a woman’s education level, the smaller is her completed family size. Contrastingly, women with lower levels of education have a greater tendency to have large families, particularly in developing countries. This is attributed to the fact that educated women have access to knowledge or information pertaining to child health and child care, as well as about contraceptive protection. With increasing levels of education, greater opportunities are available to women (Thomas-Slayter, 2003). On the other hand, King and Hill (1998, p.275) argue that “aggregate patterns do not support the general hunch that family size and female educational participation are inversely related”. In the Philipines, although female enrollment rate is the highest in the region, the country has the largest average family size of 5.9. The lowest level of female enrollment in secondary and higher education is found in Indonesia, whose average family size of 4.8, one of the lowest in the region. Similarly, Malaysia also has a low rate of 4.8 in household size, but its female enrollment rates are not particularly greater than other countries. However, Thailand reveals the inverse relationship between women’s education and family size. The country has an average family size of 5.7, the second highest in the region, but low female enrollment in secondary and higher education. Thus, women with equal levels of education from different countries indicate varying rates of fertility and desire for family size, Education improves “women’s knowledge, decision-making power, confidence in interacting with the outside world, closeness to husband and children, and economic and social self-reliance” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p.178). These outcomes of education are not uniform across different regions, cultures, or levels of development. Analysis of how women’s education also affects their aspirations, and the opportunity costs they are confronted with by having to care for a large family, is considered to be intricate (Thomas-Slayter, 2003). In extremely gender-stratified settings, the independence of women may be improved only after comparatively high levels of education have been attained. In more democractic and equal settings, thresholds are less regularly observed. These findings support the approach that in many settings, “the familiar negative effect of education on fertility is observed only after moderate level of education have been attaine” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p.178). With the attainment of increasing educational levels, there is increasing likelihood of women delaying the age of marriage, followed by postponing the building of family. Significantly, “in the short term, women with only a few years of primary education are unlikely to show a decline in fertility levels” (Thomas-Slayter, 2003, p.233). With secondary and post-secondary education, the probability for a positive relationship between education and family size occurs. In developing countries, where few females attain secondary school education, the average family size has seven children. Where enrollment in secondary school is greater, there is decrease in the completed family size. However, the relationship between employment and fertility is less clearly delineated. It may be the need to support a large family that compels a woman to join the labour force; in this case “employment and family size correlate positively rather than inversely” (Thomas-Slayer, 2003, p.233). Women’s education affects fertility differently in different settings. This theory is based on the assumption that “education affects fertility not directly but indirectly, through a variety of intervening variables” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p.178). At the same time, however, these variables have a direct effect on fertility. There are three sets of factors that result in fertility. These factors include those pertaining to the number of births a woman would have if fertility were not controlled deliberately; a woman’s demand for children or her desire for a particular family size, as well as the motives underlying these; and the means of fertility regulation taking into consideration its economic, time, and attitudinal costs (Jejeebhoy, 1995). A combination of these factors determine whether and when women carry out deliberate fertility regulation. Each of these immediate determinants of fertility is impacted by several factors relating to women’s situation that are, in turn, affected by education. These include “knowledge, decision-making power, freedom of movement and confidence in interacting with the outside world, emotional autonomy and closeness to husband and children, as well as economic and social autonomy and self-reliance” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p. 178). The theory is also based on education either increasing or decreasing fertility. It will raise the level of fertility if the effects of shorter durations of both breast-feeding and post-partum sexual abstinence are greater than the effects of delayed marriage, desire for smaller family size, and increased contraception. Additionally, the balance between these opposing forces can change from one educational level to another. Taking into consideration the multiple routes for the impact of education on fertility, it is not surprising that women with low levels of schooling may have as many children as the number uneducated women have (Jejeebhoy, 1995). The Impact of Women’s Education on Family Size in Europe Increased levels of education help in numerous ways to achieve desired family outcomes such number of children and family size. These contributions of education include raising an individual’s analytic ability, enhancing productivity, promoting psychological coping resources, sense of control, and helping to draw a more educated partner (Blossfeld and Timm, 2003). If education is considered to cause decline in desired and actual fertility, because for example it increases the costs of having children, or lessens individuals’ tendency to have a larger family for personal fulfillment, then, the better-educated would be expected to be more oriented towards smaller families. Contrastingly, education with its inherent potential of raising income levels, causes an increase in the number of children desired, because those having greater material resources would find larger family size more affordable and manageable. Similarly, they “may be more efficient in producing positive child outcomes, and more likely to have a partner with the same qualities” (Heiland et al., 2005, p.1). Parents may value offspring for various reasons such as children extending the parents’ legacy and providing new viewpoints, stimulating new interests, contributing to surprises in the parents’ lives, and for opportunities to teach and exercise control. Other valuable characteristics of children include their ability to be productive and provide support to the parents, thus compensating for their costs, as viewed by the parents, state Heiland et al. (2005). Fertility research views childbearing as the outcome of a decision-making process that involves biology in relation to age and fecundity; control over contraception based on availability, knowledge, cost, and social factors; chance as in the context of reduced number of births because of contraception and abortion; as well as women and men’s desire or inclination towards having children. The implication is that fertility desires and actual childbearing behaviour are closely connected, particularly in developed countries where there is greater control through contraception (Heiland et al., 2005). Attained fertility and wanted fertility may differ due to strong social influences that are reflected in attained fertility but not in wanted fertility. At the same time, differences in actual and wanted fertility may also emerge due to biological forces, chance or competing objectives. Noack and Ostby (2002) investigated European populations employing diverse measures of wanted or desired fertility; they demonstrated that the family size achieved is likely to fall short of the desired one. The number of children desired is based on the individual’s ranking of the different family sizes and the expected resources. A woman’s desire for a family size is the number of children she would choose to have at the time of the survey, as a result of her evaluation of the costs and benefits of childbearing, and with complete control over her fertility. Heiland et al. (2005) observe that children are expensive to the parents due to their developmental needs that require parental time and financial resources. On the other hand, children are an irreplaceable source of pleasure for their parents. A study conducted by Heiland et al. (2005) explored the relationship between education of women and men and desired family size in Western Europe. The researchers found that as compared to women and men with an educational level of average schooling, there was a greater possibility of women and men with higher education levels preferring three or more children rather than a family of two children. Further, the more educated were more favourable to having two children rather than remaining childless or having only one child. Replicating this analysis with multinational data revealed that this unique correlation was more extensively prevalent in Western Europe. Higher education being associated with lower realized fertility, the researchers confirmed that the variation between desired and actual fertility is highest at greater educational levels of women and men (Heiland et al., 2005). Engelhardt (2004) conducted research on women in Austria, and found a positive, but not statistically significant association between college preparatory high school degree and total desired fertility. On the other hand, the findings from a study undertaken by Philipov et al. (2004) on women from Bulgaria and Hungary found no impact of educational attainment on intention of having a first child for those without children. However, for those with one child, higher levels of education had a positive effect on having a second child. Research using various instruments found that the desired fertility among women with higher secondary education or more is lower in some regions such Finland, France, Netherlands, and Sweden, and higher or almost the same in other places such as Canada, Spain, and Austria. This was observed in comparison to women with only elementary education or less. Effects of Women’s Education on Family Size in Developing Countries The effect of women’s education on their family size preferences includes five main points. These include women’s education having a moderate and invariably inverse impact on desired family size; generally a small extent of educational attainment does not significantly alter family size desires; “an upper primary or secondary education is required to set off changes in demand” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p.118); the strength of the link between education and family size changes over time, though its method of altering is based on the context. Thus, it becomes stronger with duration of time “in countries at early stages of the fertility transition and weaker in countries at later stages” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p.118). Thresholds are found to decline in high-income countries as compared with low-income and middle-income countries; at the same time there is irregularity in the patterns comparing women’s literacy levels and gender disparity in literacy. Data from Demographic and Health Surveys for nine Latin American countries reveal that “women with no education have large families of 6-7 children, whereas better educated women have family sizes of 2-3 children” (Martin and Juarez, 1995, p.52), similar to those of women in the developed world. Although actual fertility rates are widely different, the desired family size is paradoxically homogenous across all educational levels of women. Both the least educated and the highest educated women share the small family norm; however the difference in the use of contraceptives between the two groups ranges from 20 to 50 percentage points. Better educated women have cognitive, economic and attitudinal assets in the form of “broader knowledge, higher socioeconomic status and less fatalistic attitudes toward reproduction than do less educated women” (Martin and Juarez, 1995, p.52). Evidence from a regression analysis reveal that these attributes support the impact of schooling on reproductive behaviour, and partly explain the wide educational differences between different strata in the educational spectrum. Research findings from controlling the economic status and other covariates, reveal that about half of the total effect of women’s education on family-size desires continues to remain the same. Evidence from several multivariate studies that is particularly significant is the persistence of thresholds. Thus, it was found that “the net effect of education is far more likely to be strong among women with secondary and higher educations than among those with primary schooling” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p.118). The evidence is extensive, in relation to education enhancing women’s economic and social self-reliance, so that there is a lower tendency for educated women to want large numbers of children or sons, to “provide them economic support in old age or to legitimize their positions in their husbands’ families” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p.118). However, the economic costs, particularly the time costs of children are considerably greater among the educated than among uneducated women. Akman (2002) states that women’s education impacts the family size through four intervening variables. These include age at marriage, breast feeding, post-partum abstinence, and child mortality. Education is found to increase the age at first marriage, consequently reducing the number of years that can be dedicated to child bearing. Additionally, female education has also been related to increasing numbers of women not marrying at all. For example, “in Thailand, only about 1.9 percent of women without education do not marry, whereas 14.6 percent of highly educated women do not marry” (Akman, 2002, p.140). Further, prolonged breast feeding serves as a conventional mode of contraception. However, increasing levels of women’s education with its emergence of knowledge autonomy, greater freedom of decision making, and emotional independence, result in decreases in period of breast feeding. Moreover, in relation to postpartum abstinence, women’s compliance with traditional beliefs promoting long durations of postpartum abstinence, declines with higher levels of women’s education. Additionally, the direct connection between mother’s education and child mortality has been established by research. The death of an infant causes the curtailment of duration of breast feeding and postpartum abstinence, which promote fertility. “Thus, with the survival of children, intervals between births are likely to be widened” (Akmam, 2002, p.140), causing lower fertility among more educated women. Educated women are also more self-assured about the survival of their new born infants; hence they have a lower tendency to expand their family size to ensure the survival of some of their children. However, the findings indicate that “the relationship of education to these motives is conditioned largely by the cultural context” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p.118). Education helps women to rely less on children as the main source of future support, and as a primary route to social acceptance. Contrastingly, in gender-stratified settings characterised by seclusion and economic dependency of women, even educated women prefer sons and desire to beget many children for validating their positions, and for creating security for themselves in their old age. In such circumstances, considerably greater extents of education will be required before changes in the perceived value and costs of children occur than in more equal environments. Thus, “the cultural context conditions the ease with which educated women can afford to revise their reproductive goals” (Jejeebhoy, 1995, p.118). Conclusion This paper has investigated the impact of women’s education on family size. The relationship between women’s education, fertility and family size have been examined, the influence of women’s education on family size in Europe has been explored, and its effects on the number of children in a family in developing countries have been examined. The evidence from research indicates that education has an indisputable impact on women’s lives, including their fertility as well as desired number of children. However, various countries reveal differing effects of women’s education on the number of children. Overall, in developed countries as in those studied in Europe, it was found that higher educational levels tended to increase the number of children, based on better economic situation and facilities. Contrastingly, in developing countries, with increased educational attainment of women, there was a decrease in family size. The effect of women’s education on fertility functions on the basis of particular variables that determine the family size. In both developed as well as developing countries, the greatest influence of education on fertility takes place at the secondary level of women’s education. Small extents of education at the primary level do not have a significant effect on family size. However, the threshold level at which the effect of women’s education is evident varies among different regions, within diverse social settings. In relatively egalitarian societies as found in developed countries, the threshold level where women’s education makes a difference, is likely to be higher, than in gender-stratified societies as in developing countries. Increased levels of education improves women’s levels of independence. Aknam (2002, p.143) reiterates that women’s education promotes autonomy “in decision making, in acquiring knowledge, in gaining access to economic resources, and in interacting with a wider social circle”. Therefore, it is concluded that the rise in self-sufficiency through education impacts women’s fertility and choice of family size. Bibliography Akman, W. (2002). Women’s education and fertility rates in developing countries, with special reference to Bangladesh. Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics, 12, pp.138-143. 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