A Tale of Two Fertilities: A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Fertility Reduction

Seeking to understand what catalyzes and sustains fertility reduction, this research explores the reproductive tradeoffs and opportunity costs experienced by individuals in three unique environmental and cultural contexts. Examining individuals in a preindustrial, indigenous population, we ask how and why a pattern of reduced reproduction begins among pre-transitional societies. Among women in the United States, we question how exposure to reproduction and childrearing at an early age act upon fertility ideation. Among individuals in an institution of higher education where high educational and professional investment is normative, we examine how education and professional rank tradeoff against fertility. Within the preindustrial population with relatively recent and pervasive access to contraception, women translate access to wage labor and reproductive agency into higher fertility desires, and yet fertility is falling due to a changing material economy and a shift in reproductive prudence. Education expedites this effect, creating a reduction in desired fertility and a higher likelihood of using contraception. Among women in the United States, greater early experience with pregnancy, childbirth and childrearing leads to behaviors predictive of higher lifetime fertility, yet ultimate fertility is not significantly higher among those with increased experience. Women recalibrate fertility desires to accommodate life demands following entry into parenthood and feel little obligation to meet early goals for fertility. Among a similar, though more highly educated population with high professional pursuits, high educational investment is the strongest predictor of lower-than-desired fertility outcomes. Professional rank shapes how individuals balance work and family formation, with high- and low-rank individuals using contrasting approaches to maintain professional pursuits while raising children; high-rank individuals decrease professional investments while raising young children and low-rank individuals increase professional investments. Women experience the highest levels of conflict when juggling professional and personal responsibilities. Consistent among these studies, we find that fertility desires are often different than outcomes, changing opportunity costs contribute to reductions in fertility, and growing costs of material goods create pressure to engage in reproductive prudence, made possible by access to contraceptive technology. Women cross-culturally are more deeply impacted by the shifting educational and professional landscape, with each investment differentially impacting fertility outcomes