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Families, Fertility and the Future: Hearing the Voices of Australians

Dr Maryanne Dever, Dr JaneMaree Maher, Dr Jennifer Curtin & Dr Andrew Singleton

This project was undertaken by a team of researchers from across the School of Political and Social Inquiry:

Dr Maryanne Dever (Women's Studies), Dr JaneMaree Maher (Women's Studies), Dr Jennifer Curtin (Politics), Dr Andrew Singleton (Sociology).

Project Description and Aims

This project was prompted by increasing public concern over Australia 's falling national birthrate and on-going political debate regarding the role and provision of paid maternity leave and other initiatives designed to encourage or support those Australians planning or raising families.

We looked at the specific groups in contemporary Australia : women or men with no children; women or men with one child; women or men with two or more children; young women or men (under 26 years); and women raising children alone, who have attracted attention in the national debate about population, fertility and the future. We looked at these groups that both media and policy makers have been interested in, in order to find out what it that these women and men really think and what's important to them when they decide whether or not to have children.

Qualitative interviews were used to produce a snapshot of how individuals assess the costs and benefits of having children and how women's reproductive choices, in particular, are negotiated in relation to career, personal and relationship goals. 114 Victorian women and men were interviewed across 2002 and 2003.

The study sought to:

Project Background

The 2001 decision by the Australian Catholic University to offer one year's paid maternity leave to female staff generated renewed debate concerning fertility, families, and policy. Yet despite concern that any trend toward more generous maternity leave provisions could place excessive burdens upon employers, the reality is that like many western nations, Australia currently has a very low total fertility rate (TFR), about 1.7 children per female. After stabilising at 2.1 for some time, in recent years there has been a substantial fall to below replacement level (TFR = 2.1). The signs indicate further decline as the greatest drop is among females in their twenties and this shortfall is not made up by women in the thirties. Demographers have identified various other trends in Australia 's fertility patterns. Women are waiting until they are older before having their first child, more women are choosing not to have children and increasing numbers of women are having children outside a partnered relationship.

Scholars have proposed several theories in order to account for these patterns, from rational choice theory (where women make judgments about the costs and benefits of having children) to gender equity theories (linking fertility rates to relative degrees of gender equity inside and outside family units) and risk aversion theory (where actual or potential economic, social or relationship instability prompts individuals to opt for 'safe' or 'low-risk' life choices). Each of these variously emphasises the significance of social, cultural, economic and psychological factors in the decision whether to have children.

Notwithstanding the utility of these theories, to date, insufficient scholarly attention has been paid to how the various factors are personally experienced and understood by different women when deciding upon matters related to having children. This information is crucial before an appropriate range of policies to address low fertility can be developed. The focus of this project on lived experiences and personal attitudes represented an important and innovative development for research in this area. This study provides insights into how individuals assess the costs and benefits of having children, the way various social and cultural factors influence individual decision-making and how women's choices are negotiated in relation to career, personal and relationship goals. The findings have direct implications for existing theories about falling birth rates and the formulation of policies aimed at arresting the decline.

Key Findings

Common stereotypes about how differently situated women consider motherhood and its relationship to paid work, government benefits and policy were challenged . For example: women choosing not to have children did not reflect the common image of them as career-driven high achievers or women who can't find partners; women with multiple children featured strongly among those exhibiting significant and on-going attachments to the labour market.

Particular policy initiatives and entitlements did not influence singularly the decisions made about fertility, but they did form the landscape in which women and men negotiated their choices about families, work and life. Rather than operating as a direct inducement, policy initiatives formed the backdrop that encouraged and shaped women's decisions, in particular and often with hindsight. So although policies and entitlements were not generally identified as the factor which influenced first birth timing or decisions about having children, they were significant in what occurred afterwards and were particularly important to women choosing to have more than two children.

Policies that are specifically focused on managing parenting, and mothering in particular, such as maternity and parental leave were most significant to women who have already had a child. A number of women without children did view parental leave provisions as likely to feature in their future decisions, but these women were as likely to cite cultural pressures and expectations of motherhood as important to their choice not to have children as they were to focus on potential benefits. The exception to this was issues of work/life balance, which women in all groups identified as a challenging and often difficult balancing act.

Access to maternity leave is not yet universal, and only a quarter of respondents had access to paid maternity leave. While most said that the availability of paid maternity leave did not factor in their decision to have children, a significant minority believed it to be important, primarily as a way of providing additional financial support and to maintain a connection with the labour market. The difficulty with untangling meanings from responses about paid maternity leave is that given so few women have access to it, we are asking many women about an initiative that is not currently a real-life option for them.

Broader social services, most particularly affordable childcare, appropriate health care were identified as important by women describing their reproductive experiences and decisions. When women talked about deciding about children, health issues, childcare availability and other community services were important to them. The cost of education; both retraining for themselves, and education for their children, was often mentioned. There was little anger expressed about the diminution of these services, such as limited visits to maternal and child health care centres, the expense of childcare and access to medical care, with most women and men accepting this was the way things worked now.

Overall, many women ended up lowering their expectations about what both governments and employers would provide in supporting their fertility decisions. The women and men in this study generally accepted what Kerreen Reiger has identified as a new phase in Australian social history where 'the production of children is now viewed more and more as a private choice rather than a social contribution'.

Focus on fertility 'decision-making' obscures the extent to which reproductive patterns are the result of situation and circumstance. Amongst the women with children, the prevalence of unplanned pregnancy was startling. Almost 48% of first pregnancies were described as either totally accidental or occurring much earlier than had been foreseen by the women concerned. This indicates that in our community reproduction is less planned than is often assumed. It supports our conclusion that policy initiatives will be more central in women's choices to move from one child to more children . Very often, it was the decision about a second child that respondents characterised as a clear and thoughtful decision.

Workplace experiences were a crucial part of women's considerations about reproduction. Many women recounted incidents of difficulty in combining working and motherhood that they had experienced or that they had observed. For women with and without children, these incidences reflected an ambivalent attitude towards mothering and parenting where genuine flexible support was lacking. Given that all of the young women interviewed intended, if they became mothers, to continue in paid employment, this finding is an important one.

The centrality of flexible, available and satisfactory part-time work to the reproductive decisions women made was further supported by the stories of women with three or more children, who very often cited their supportive work circumstances as central to their decisions about a second or third child.

Women who were not in the workforce described the pressures and difficulties faced in trying to combine a satisfactory working life and motherhood as important to their choices. Limited possibilities for education and retraining were identified as a concern even where women were not immediately contemplating a return to the workforce. There were often anxieties about future opportunities and security expressed, even when women did not want to work at the present time.

Most of the women in this study felt that motherhood was viewed quite ambivalently in our society. While most of the women indicated that they personally felt it was a positive and important job, even if they were not planning to become mothers, they recognised that mothers were not accorded a high status position and that their social contribution was not always valued. For women with children, this often meant that they valued their work as a crucial aspect of their identity. For women choosing not to have children, this lack of support was often mentioned in how they had decided motherhood was not for them.

Despite consistent public debate that focuses on competition and tension between women with children and women without children,the women in this study were overwhelmingly respectful of all decisions about reproduction . For women who were mothers, even when they themselves found it to be the most important decision they had ever taken, there was no criticism of women who decided not to have children. Similarly, women without children were often genuinely appreciative of mothers and the work they do, without feeling the need to be the 'same'. This finding is a crucial one: the 'mummy' wars, as Barbara Pocock has described them (2003), that underpin most media discussions of policy and social attitude were not reflected in how women talked about each others' choices.

Men and women approach thinking and talking about fertility in different ways . Some of the issues that were most important for men were not necessarily the issues that were most important for their partner, or other women who participated in this study. Reflecting society-wide constructions of men as breadwinners and providers, the males tended to be far concerned more about money, age and lifestyle and far less (if at all) about career interruption, difficulties associated with birthing or childcare arrangements

Summary Report

A summary report of the project entitled What Women (and Men) Want: Births, Policies and Choices is available in PDF format . Bound copies of the report can be purchased for AUD$20 from the School of Political and Social Inquiry.

More Project Outcomes

Team members have participated in policy forums, public debate and media commentary, in addition to producing conference papers, articles and working papers:

Papers presented by team members based on project findings include:

Publications by team members include:

Curtin, Jennifer. 'Representing Women's Interests in the Paid Maternity Leave Debate'. Australasian Political Science Association Refereed Conference Proceedings, University of Tasmania , 29 September - 1 October 2003 , http://www.utas.edu.au/government/APSA/RefereedPapers.html

Dever, Maryanne and Curtin, Jennifer. 'The politics of reproduction: The Howard government, paid maternity leave and family friendly policy'.Fertility, Families and the Future Working Paper No 3. February 2004, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University .

Dever, Maryanne and Maher, JaneMaree. 'Families, Fertility and the Future: Preliminary Thoughts and Findings'. Fertility, Families and the Future Working Paper No 1. October 2002, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University .

Dever, Maryanne and Saugeres, Lise. ' I forgot to have children!: Untangling links between feminism, careers and voluntary childlessness.' Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering : Special issue on 'Mothering and Work/Mothering as Work" . Forthcoming 2004.

Maher, JaneMaree. 'Skills, Not Attributes: Rethinking Mothering as Work'.Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering : Special issue on 'Mothering and Work/Mothering as Work" . Forthcoming 2004.

Maher, JaneMaree and Dever, Maryanne. 'What matters to women: Beyond Reproductive Stereotypes'. People and Place , Sept 2004.

Maher, JaneMaree and Saugeres, Lise. 'To Be or not to Be a Mother?: Cultural Representations and Ideologies of Mothering in Australia '. Fertility, Families and the Future Working Paper No 2. February 2004, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University .

Further publications are in preparation and details will be posted here soon.

Acknowledgements

This project was made possible by a Monash University Faculty of Arts Research Strengths Support Scheme Grant in 2002 and by a Faculty of Arts Project Completion Grant in 2003 (under the title of 'Gender Roles, Fertility and Family: Understanding the Current Downturn in Australia 's Birthrate.')

The project was supported by a range of research staff. The Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University provided input into the selection of key demographic targets and locations for recruitment, together with general advice and support. In the Centre, Dr Bob Birrell was always available for discussion and brought considerable expertise that he generously shared. Ms Virginia Rapson provided crucial and timely advice in the management and organisation of data. The authors of the report also gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the following to this study: postdoctoral fellow Dr Lise Saugeres; initial project manager Dr Liz Day; and research assistants Kerrie Godbold, Vicki Pollard, Giorgia Moar and Genevieve Heard.

This project was approved by the MonashUniversity Standing Committee for Ethical Research with Humans.

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