2020/12/15 by Alyce Raybould, Rebecca Sear · 177 citations
Social Sciences · #Complementarity (molecular biology) #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences #Demographic economics #Demography #Division of labour #Dual (grammatical number) #Economics #Equity (law) #Family Dynamics and Relationships #Fertility #Gender equity #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics #Macro level #Macroeconomics #Political science #Population #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1080/00324728.2020.1851748
published in Population Studies 75(2), 169-190 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2020/12/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Gender equity theories of fertility broadly predict that the lowest fertility in high-income settings will be seen in women facing a 'dual burden' of both paid and unpaid labour responsibilities, but that fertility will increase when male partners share domestic labour. Here we provide a critique of some gender equity theories of fertility in demography, and restate the hypothesis in terms of complementarity between partners. Further, we suggest authors use an interdisciplinary approach, such as integrating perspectives from evolutionary theory and the 'Traits-Desires-Intentions-Behaviour' framework, to provide some consistency to this diverse literature. Building on this theoretical synthesis, we perform a systematic review of 95 pieces of analysis. This broadly supports the idea that fertility will be low where women face a dual burden, which is particularly evident among macro-level studies, micro-level analyses investigating progression to subsequent children, and studies which do not use gender role attitudes as an independent variable.