CHILDBEARING OUTSIDE MARRIAGE €“ a CASE STUDY OF MACEDONIA

Abstract

The wide range of demogeographic changes that the population in the Republic of Macedonia is facing today are mutually conditioned and followed up one with another. These changes can be recognized in the declining number of marriages and births, delayed marriage until the optimal reproductive age of the women, new forms of illegitimate unions, increased number of divorces, childbearing outside marriage and more. The changes are mainly caused because of the individualization, the emancipation of women, personal freedom, rejection of the traditional moral norms and gender roles. The appearance of childbearing outside marriage in the Republic of Macedonia is not a new phenomenon, but from a geographical point of view it has not been analyzed in details so far. The number of children born outside marriage in the last five decades does not record any significant changes, but when it comes to the percentage share, the values are slightly increasing, especially in the last two decades. Most of the children born outside marriage are born as a first child of the mother, but the share of births of higher order is constantly increasing which shows that childbearing outside marriage is becoming more a matter of choice. The main aim of this paper is to note the differences in the number of births outside marriage and to analyze the demogeographic and ethnic characteristics of women who have given birth in the period from 1970 to 2017 in order to predict the future trends.

The Impact of Marriage on the Fertility Level – The Case of North Macedonia

“…In 2016 [1], Apostolovska Tosevska and Gorin published a paper on the dynamics in the volume and age of the female reproductive population in the Republic of Macedonia. Marriages and divorces have been analyzed in the papers by Ljakoska et al, in 2018 [15], [16], and 2019, [11], [13], while the fertility and the reproductive behavior were analyzed in 2018 [3], (Apostolovska Toshevska et al, about the reproductive behavior of the female population in the only Roma governed community), in 2019 [12], [17] (childbearing outside marriage, and the municipalities by the scope of women in childbearing age ), while in 2020, were analyzed the changes in the reproductive behavior of women (Ljakoska, 2020) [14].…”

Changes in the Reproductive Behavior of Women in North Macedonia

“…One paper by Apostolovska Toshevska, in co-authorship with Gorin, is dedicated to the dynamics in the size and age of the female reproductive population (2016) [2], followed by the paper on the characteristics of reproductive behavior of Roma women (2018) [1]. Ljakoska is the author of a paper dedicated to births outside marriage (2019) [15], as well as a paper co-authored with Madjevikj and Apostolovska Tosevska on the displacement of women of reproductive age in municipalities in North Macedonia (2019) [16]. Among the other authors with a large number of scientific papers dedicated to this issue are Jovanović (models for fertility testing) (1997) [12], Risteski (about the demographic transition (1996) [26], about the demographic statistics (2000, 2014) [25], [24], for the reproduction models (2005,2007)) [28], [27], Kjurchiev, et al, for terms used in fertility and reproduction analysis (2011) [13] and others.…”

Some socio-demographic characteristics of mothers in North Macedonia

“…(Akrap, 2003), all in order to build up their career. This way, marriage ceases to be a framework for the biological reproduction of the population and the creation of legitimate offspring (Ljakoska, 2019).…”