Religiosity, gender attitudes and women’s labour market participation and fertility decisions in Europe

Abstract

The Second Demographic Transition (SDT) theory underlines the importance of changing values and attitudes to explain the trend toward low fertility and raising female labour market participation. We contribute to this debate comparing religiosity and gender attitudes over several European countries using three waves of the European Values Study (1990, 1999 and 2008). By dealing with the issues of measurement invariance and endogeneity between values and behaviour, our results support some critiques of the SDT theory. The pace of the process of sociocultural change has not been the same across European countries and the forerunners of the SDT, that is, the most secularized and gender-egalitarian societies, now have the highest female labour market participation rates and the highest fertility. We provide evidence for a 'macro-micro paradox' regarding the role of values on family behaviours. Religiosity is positively correlated with fertility and housewifery, while gender attitudes are only correlated with women's labour market decisions. These correlations are stronger in more traditional countries, even if aggregate fertility is lower. We stress the necessity to integrate cultural and structural explanations, suggesting the lack of family policies and the rigidity of the family formation process as possible mechanisms to unravel this paradox.

Modelling the Socio-Economic Determinants of Fertility: A Mediation Analysis using the Parametric g-formula

“…Guetto et al . (), Hirschman (), Inglehart and Baker () and Lesthaeghe ()). Our analysis is motivated by the idea that traditional values of this kind most certainly existed for the 1970 birth cohort, at least for a subset of the population.…”

“…Guetto et al . (), Hirschman (), Inglehart and Baker () and Lesthaeghe ()). The confounder was constructed in a similar way to that in the marriage scenario, with a coefficient of 3 for total number of children, −1.95 for total person‐years in education, −1.15 for total number of years in full‐time employment and −0.65 for women in part‐time employment.…”

“…In the marriage scenario, we motivate our analysis by assuming-on the basis of the literature-that certain individuals have a more 'traditional' value system, obtained during childhood, which makes them more likely to marry and to have children (e.g. Guetto et al (2015), Hirschman (1994), Inglehart and Baker (2000) and Lesthaeghe (1983)). Our analysis is motivated by the idea that traditional values of this kind most certainly existed for the 1970 birth cohort, at least for a subset of the population.…”

“…For the education scenario, we assumed that traditional values may make a woman more likely to have children and less likely to be in education (e.g. Guetto et al (2015), Hirschman (1994), Inglehart and Baker (2000) and Lesthaeghe (1983)). The confounder was constructed in a similar way to that in the marriage scenario, with a coefficient of 3 for total number of children, −1:95 for total person-years in education, −1:15 for total number of years in full-time employment and −0:65 for women in part-time employment.…”

The impact of citizenship on intermarriage: Quasi-experimental evidence from two European Union Eastern enlargements

“…When comparing Polish and Romanian women, it is possible to argue that Italian men perceive a larger cultural distance from the latter. First, Italy and Poland share a common Catholic, 'familistic' tradition (Guetto, Luijkx, and Scherer 2015;Matysiak and Vignoli 2013); second, the media often portray Romanians as belonging to the same ethnic group as Romanian Roma (Mǎndroane 2012), who are depicted as the most crime-prone minority in Italy (Popescu 2008). …”