Adserà Abstract

“Fertility, Feminism, and Faith: How is Secularism Influencing Fertility in the West?”

Fertility rates in developed countries have fallen to previously unseen levels. Within that general downward trend, fertility has varied significantly across countries, plummeting to 1.3 or below in Southern European countries, Germany and Austria. Conversely, fertility has remained comparatively high, though under replacement rate, in Anglo-Saxon and Nordic countries, were norms of intra-household equality are more widespread. At the same time, Western societies have undergone differential processes of secularization – though their extent is subject to heated academic debate.

Do changes in religious practice explain shifts in fertility rates across developed countries? Are beliefs about the ideal number of children related to particular religious views or religious affiliations? Is the effect of religion conditional on labor market institutions and the opportunity costs they may impose on professional women?  Has secularization affected fertility choices by reshaping the structure and labor roles within the family? In particular, do gender ideologies (such as feminism) interact in specific ways with welfare states and labor institutions to restructure work-family arrangements and the value couples put in having more offspring?
The paper will review the existing literature on how shifts in religious attendance and beliefs are linked to family size across countries and denominations. It will then explore the questions listed above employing the following survey data: (1) ISSP 1994 and 2002 on Family Roles; (2) ISSP 1998 Religion II (and 2008) to study the relationship between objective (prayer, attendance) and subjective measures of current and childhood religiosity and fertility in the OECD; (3) European Social Survey and World Values Surveys.