Topic 7 Flashcards
Total fertility rate
Effects the birth rate – the total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children women will have during their fertile years. The UK’s TFR has risen from 2020 – 2021, most likely do to the COVID lockdown. However it has been trending downwards in the last decade.
• 1964 2.93 children per woman
• 2020 1.58 children per woman
• 2021 1.61 children per woman
Decline in birth rate - changing position of women
Legal equality with men including the right to vote
Increase in educational opportunities - girls now do better than boys
More women in paid employment, plus laws such as equal pay act 1970 and sex discrimination act in 1975
Changes in attitudes to family life and women’s role
Easier to access divorce
Access to abortion and reliable contraception - giving women more control over their fertility.
Harper - changing position of women
Argues that the education of women has been the most significant factor which triggered a change in mind set for women. Not only has this led women to be more educated about contraception and as such controlling their fertility, the rise in education has led women to reject the traditional female roles and pursue education and careers; delaying childbirth or opting to not have children at all e.g. in 2012 1 in 5 women aged 45 were childless (double the number 25 years earlier).
Decline in infant mortality rate
The infant mortality rate (IMR) measure the number of infants who dies before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year.
Harper argues the fall in the IMR leads to a fall in the birth rate. This is because, if many infants die, parents have more children to replace them therefore increasing the birth rate. So if infants survive, parents will have fewer of them.
1900 IMR was 150 (in other words 15% of babies died within a year) 1950 IMR had fallen to 31
2021 IMR stood at 4
Brass and Kabir
Argue the trend in small families did not start in rural areas where the IMR first began to fall, but in urban areas where the IMR remained higher for longer.
Children are now an economic liability
• Laws banning child labour, introducing compulsory schooling and raising the school leaving age means that children remain dependent for longer and longer.
• Changing norms about what children have a right to expect from their parents in material terms mean that the cost of bringing up a child has risen
As a result of these financial pressures parents are choosing to have smaller families as they are less able to afford bigger ones.
Child centredness
In terms of family size this has seen a shift from ‘quantity’ to ‘quality’ – parents now have fewer children and lavish more attention and resources on these few.
Future trends in birth rate
One reason for the increase was immigration, because on average mothers from outside of the UK have a higher fertility rate. Babies born to mothers outside of the UK accounted for 25% of all births in 2011.
The projection for the period up to 2045 expects the annual births to be fairly constant at around 800,000 per year.
Impact of smaller families - family
Smaller families mean women are more likely to be free to go out to work and therefore creating more dual earner families in society. However family size is only one factor e.g. better off couples may have larger families because they can afford childcare and continue
to work full-time.
Impact of smaller families - dependency ratio
The dependency ratio is the relationship between the size of the working population and the size of the non-working/ dependent part of the population.
Earnings, savings and taxes of the working population support the dependent population. Children make up a large part of the dependent population, so a fall in the number of children in the short term reduces the ‘burden of dependency’ on the working population.
Impact of smaller families - public services and policies
A lower birth rate has a consequence for public services e.g. fewer schools and maternity and child health services are needed. It also affects the cost of maternity and paternity leave and the types of houses that need to be built. But we should understand that these are political decisions; e.g. instead of reducing schools the government could decide to have smaller class sizes.
An ageing population – women having fewer babies means that the average age of the population is rising: there are more old people to young people.
Tranter - death rate
argues that over three quarters of the decline in the death rate from 1850 to 1970 was due to the fall in deaths from infectious diseases such as diphtheria, TB, measles, smallpox and typhoid. These disease affected children and young adults the most.
Mckeown - improved nutrition
argue that improved nutrition accounted for over half the reduction in death rates - particularly deaths from TB. Better nutrition meant there was increased resistance to infection and increased the survival rates of those who did get infected.
Medical improvements
Before 1950s medical knowledge played almost no part in reducing the death rate and in some cases actually caused it.
Since 1950s improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisations has helped to reduce the death rate. Advances such as:
• Blood transfusions
• Antibiotics
• Improved maternity care
• Setting up the NHS – in 1948
• By-pass surgery
Smoking and diet - harper
argues the decrease in the death rate in recent times has not been down to medical improvements but from people not smoking. But in the 21st century obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic e.g. in 2012 one quarter of UK adults were obese. Although obesity has increased, death from obesity is quite low due to drug therapies.
