These changes in fertility shows that more women are remaining childless than in the past and women are postponing having children, older women may be less fertile and have fewer fertile years remaining, so they produce fewer children. Sociologist have identified many reason for the decline in birth rate since 1900, these reasons involve a range of social, economic, cultural, legal, political and technological factors. Changes in the position of women also plays a role in the decline of birth rate, this is because there was a major change in the position of women during the 20th century. The change in position of women include legal equality with men, including the right to vote, increased educational opportunity this enabled girls to do better at school than boy. More women in paid employment, plus laws outlawing unequal pay and sex discrimination.
The problem is that there are less working class then there is the elderly population. To be clear, this means there are less able-bodied working people than there are elderly people in retirement. Majority of the elderly depend on medicare. Because the elderly population is increasing, this will lead to increased health care costs. This is added to costs for advanced health care.
The changes that occurred include greater equality, rights to vote, rights to divorce, work opportunities and the availability of contraception to control their fertility, due these factors women are no longer frowned upon on for having ambitions and goals to achieve before they settle down and start a family. The changes in society’s attitude towards women has led to more freedom and the choice of whether they have children or pursue a career; therefore due to such freedom for women compared to 100 years ago the birth rate has declined and thus the family sizes have also declined. In the UK the average age for a woman to give birth to her first child is 28 however 100 years ago women were expected to be married and at least planning a family in their late teens or early twenties, the fact that this statistic has risen has an impact on the birth rate across the UK and therefore the family sizes, this is due to the fact that women now have less time to have a lot of children and create a large family before they become infertile. The fact that women are starting a family at a later age may be due to the fact that they set out to go to university and get a
A mixture of these factors led to the change in the position of women in society, the increase in equality, especially legally, including the right to vote (legal factor), the increase in educational opportunities (social factor) meant that women chose to educate themselves before starting a family, the increase in work opportunities with laws banning unequal pay and sex discrimination (social/legal factor)and changing attitudes in society meant that it was socially acceptable for women to be employed whereas traditionally the wife would be the housewife and the husband would be the breadwinner and would financially support his family. Recently, the number of people dying has also decreased in the UK as there is an increase in life
1950s- Baby Boom Generation Therefore, one of the most significant events that took place in the 1950s would be the baby boom. This event was a culmination of similar factors that came together. Due to the great depression many people could not afford to have children because there would be no means for supporting a family. Once the great depression ended many people began to make up for lost time. The standards of living decreased due to an increase in birthrates, making it easier for couples to support their families.
The introduction of contraception has led to couples having smaller families, therefore meaning that children now tend to receive more attention from their parents. Similarly, parents are also able to care for their children better due to the introduction of the welfare state and child benefits. Climbie’s case and ‘Every Child Matters’ has led to the improvement of social services and child protection, meaning childhood is much safer now than it was 50 years ago. Children are also in better health due to the NHS, meaning more children survive childhood now than ever before. All children can now receive state education up until the age of 18, meaning they are better educated and can achieve much higher in adulthood, whilst experiencing a longer period of youth.
The death rate has fallen since 1900, which could be due to improvements in healthcare or the improved nutrition which has accounted for the reduction in death rates. However there are consequences for the decreasing death rate and one major consequence of this is the ageing population. The UK date rate refers to the overall number of deaths per year. In 2010, the death rates decreased to 493,242 which is a reduction of the death rate from 600,000 deaths per year in the early 1900s. There have been several reasons for the decline in death rate, and one of the reasons include the improved nutrition that the UK has achieved during the 1900s.
An external factor is a factor in which affects the education system from outside for example home and family. Sociologist argue that the difference between the achievement of each gender is through several external factors , in which are causing girls to achieve better than boys within school, these consist of ; The impacts of feminist; since the 1960’s the feminist movement have challenged the typical stereotype of woman’s roles within society as a mother alongside being a housewife. Feminist still believe they have not yet achieved full equality, however have improved woman’s rights and opportunity’s through the use of laws, as well as this feminism have largely raised expectations and self-esteems of woman. An example of this would be through McRobbie; she took a comparison of girl magazines in the 1970’s and 1990’s. In the 1970’s magazines like Jackie Largely promoted marriage and being a housewife, whereas in the 1990’s magazines took a different approach of personal choice and independence of woman.
This meant that women would not have to carry out Parsonâs idea of an expressive role. Instead, women were seen as more equal to men and they were liberated in the sense that they werenât just there to produce children and look after the home. They also had the opportunity to leave the marriage much more easily, creating more single-parent families. ...read more. Middle Because women are pressured into undergoing sterilisation, they are not given the chance to make their own decisions, increasing the inequality between men and women.
Many are choosing to delay or not to have a child at all due to pursue a career. * Children have become an economic liability – children used to be able to work and were seen as assets to the economy but now laws and the cost of having a child has increased and as a result of financial pressures they would rather not have a larger family (d) Examine the reasons for changes in the size and the structure of the population of the United Kingdom since the beginning of the 20th