The Gender Revolution: A Framework for Understanding Changing Family and Demographic Behavior

Abstract

This article argues that the trends normally linked with the second demographic transition (SDT) may be reversed as the gender revolution enters its second half by including men more centrally in the family. We develop a theoretical argument about the emerging consequences of this stage of the gender revolution and review research results that bear on it. The argument compares the determinants and consequences of recent family trends in industrialized societies provided by two narratives: the SDT and the gender revolution in the public and private spheres. Our argument examines differences in theoretical foundations and positive vs. negative implications for the future. We focus primarily on the growing evidence for turnarounds in the relationships between measures of women's human capital and union formation, fertility, and union dissolution, and consider evidence that men's home involvement increases union formation and fertility and decreases union instability. Although the family trends underlying the SDT and the gender revolution narratives are ongoing and a convincing view of the phenomenon has not yet emerged, the wide range of recent research results documenting changing, even reversing relationships suggests that the gender approach is increasingly the more fruitful one.

The New Roles of Men and Women and Implications for Families and Societies

“…Family related demographic behaviours are seen as strictly associated with transitions across family equilibria, aiming for consistency between people's evolving preferences and behaviours (Esping-Andersen and Billari 2015). In contrast, Goldscheider et al (2015) distinguish between two phases of the transformation of gender roles. The first phase of the gender revolution is characterised by a strong rise in women's labor force participation and a gradual adaptation of the public sphere to this change towards increasing gender equality, while gender roles within the family remain unchanged.…”

“…More and more scholars indicate that a redefinition of men's role within the family is crucial for progressing in transformation of gender roles (see e.g. Esping-Andersen and Billari 2015; Goldscheider et al 2015). Along with empowering mothers as economic providers, the new role of fathers should be strengthened.…”

“…These dimensions have been synthesized in new theoretical frameworks on multiple equilibrium (Esping-Andersen and Billari 2015) and the gender revolution (Goldscheider et al 2015) aimed at explaining past trends as well as recent family changes from the point of view of the ongoing transformation of gender roles. Both concepts focus on the interplay between family related behaviour and shifts in women's and men's social roles reflected in their gendered responsibilities for economic provision and care in a family.…”

“…In contemporary family scholarship there is an increasing awareness of gender and family changes being interconnected, and conceptualization of the gender revolution has gained terrain (Goldscheider 1990;Puur et al 2008;Esping-Andersen 2009;England 2010). Developments related to women's new role are seen as weakening the family and have been attributed to the first phase of the gender revolution, while more recent family changes and the emerging caring male role have been linked to the second phase (Goldscheider et al 2015).…”

Secularism and Fertility Worldwide

“…Gender equity influences fertility through women's greater access to education, contraception, and abortion, as well as empowerment to make decisions about their bodies and families. Gender equity is generally said to reduce fertility, but under certain conditions, including the presence of egalitarian values in which women expect help from men rearing children, the highest levels of equality could allow women to better combine career and family plans and, ultimately, have a higher fertility than in only moderately gender-equitable societies (Arpino, Esping-Andersen, and Pessin 2015;Esping-Andersen and Billari 2015;Goldscheider, Bernhardt, and Lappegard 2015;McDonald 2000McDonald , 2013. In other words, gender equality will generally decrease fertility but there could be a curvilinear relationship between equality and fertility and/or a distinction between values and material equality.…”