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Becoming parents in France and Germany : norms, values and representations. Most of European countries have now a low fertility regime resulting from changes in parenthood behavior and family social role. Fertility patterns notably differ in France and Germany, France displaying the highest fertility rate in Europe whereas Germany has one of the lowest. This paper explores the cultural reasons behind these differences, analyzing how fertility intentions emerge and what tradeoffs are made for realizing the intentions. The analysis is based on a qualitative survey carried out in the two countries with a similar sample of individuals, men and women, in age of becoming parents, partnered or not. Beyond broad differences in policies supporting parenthood in the two countries that are often mentioned as being the main factor explaining fertility differences, the paper highlights the impact of norms and values on fertility decisions and realization, especially with regard to attitudes toward parenthood, gender roles and work commitment.

The neighbouring countries France and Germany show very different levels of fertility. Differences also exist between the two regions of East and West Germany. The aim of this paper is to help close a remaining gap in explaining these differences by applying a cultural concept of role models. Data is based on the German survey “Family-related role models” (2012) and the French survey “Situation de couple, intentions de fécondité et opinions sur la famille”, ELIPSS (2013) offering a new approach to measuring the impact of social norms. The analysis uses multinomial logistic regression. We identified role models regarding the acceptance of childlessness on the one hand and large families on the other, as well as regarding the link between marriage and parenthood and the importance of financial security, suggesting different fertility-related cultures in France and Germany. There is a strong predominance of one general role model in France – that of having at least two children. In Germany, in contrast, there is a dominant role model – the two child family – but there are also several less central role models. The dominant model in France even leads to a sort of self-stigmatisation of individuals who want to stay childless, whereas childlessness is generally accepted in Germany. Role model differences between East and West Germany show a lower acceptance of large families and a higher acceptance of single-child families in the East. Our results highlight the importance of role models for fertility intentions as well as the relevance of cultural dimensions when studying the impact of the institutional framework on fertility.

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