Decline In Birth Rates

Question 1

Name four reasons why birth rates are decreasing

Answer 1

Changing positions of women

Decline in the infant mortality rate

Children have become an economic liability

Childcentredness

Question 2

Ao1 changes in the position of women

Answer 2

They has been many changes in the position of woman during the 20tb century. This includes
Equality as women allowed to vote
More educational opportunities
More women in paid employment
Easy access to divorce

As a result of these changes women now see other possibilities in life apart from the traditional role as a housewife and mother
Many have chosen to delay childbearing or not to have children in order to pursue a career
Education is the most significant reason for the changes as women are developing a new mindset
And smaller families have become the norm

Question 3

Ao3
Changes in the position of women

Answer 3

Not all women have broken through the glass ceiling
Radical feminists argue women are still oppressed and sexually regulated by the control of men
And the working population decreases causing an increase in the burden of dependency

Question 4

Ao1 decline in the infant mortality rate

Answer 4

The infant mortality rate measures the number of infants Who die before their first birthday per year

Many sociologist argue that a fall in the infant mortality rate leads to a fall in the birth rate. This is because if many infants are parents have more children to replace those they have lost
During the first half of the 20th century, the U.K. infant mortality rate began to fall
This was because
Improved housing and better sanitation
A fall in the number of married women working may have improved their health, and that of the babies
Improve in services for mothers and children, such as antenatal and postnatal clinics

Question 5

Ao3 decline in the infant mortality rate

Answer 5

However, while many sociologist claimed that the following of infant mortality rate leads to a fall in birth rates other reject this view
And that the trend for smaller families began not in rural areas, where the IMR first began to fall but in urban areas where the IMR remained higher

Question 6

Ao1 children have become an economic liability

Answer 6

Until the late 19th century, children were economic assets to their parents because they could be sent out for work at an early age to earn an income
However, since the late 19th centuries, children have gradually become an economic liability
Laws are introduced to ban child labour and the introduction of compulsory schooling and raising school leaving age means that children remain economically dependent on their parents for longer

Question 7

Ao3 children have become economic liability

Answer 7

Many ethnic minority group still have above average children in a family
Meaning that this reason cannot be generalised to all

Question 8

Ao1 child centredNess

Answer 8

The increasing child centredness both of the family and of society as a whole has encouraged a shift from quantity to quality
Parents now have fewer children and lavish more attention and resources on these few

Question 9

Ao3
Child centredness