the project

This project aims at examining childbearing behaviour, reproductive intentions and perceived constraints using a birth-order-specific approach, as well as contrasting women and men’s perspectives in Spain, South Korea and Uruguay, three of the world’s lowest fertility countries. The comparison of these so different but so alike countries in terms of lowest-low fertility is both novel and necessary to improve understanding of how cultural, economic and institutional contexts influence childbearing decisions. Some of the hypotheses to be investigated are clearly innovative, since the ultra-low fertility in countries as diverse as Spain, South Korea and Uruguay demands that many of the traditional assumptions and postulates used in demographic theories be reassessed.

A late reproductive calendar, increased (voluntary and involuntary) infertility, and low rates of progression to the second child lie behind the lowest-low fertility currently recorded in Spain and South Korea compared to the recent past. However, the decline in teenage childbearing and the lower propensity of recent generations to have a second child stand out as the two distinct components of Uruguay’s very low fertility. The ultimate aim of the project is to determine whether, despite different degrees, paces and timing, the Second Demographic Transition paradigm is generalizable beyond the developed world to explain changes in gender relations and in the family, reproductive, educational and employment trajectories of individuals.

The originality of this scientific proposal lies in how fertility and family-related issues will be addressed: (a) using an integrated approach that brings together life course, gender and social stratification focuses; (b) analysing the intersection between individuals’ reproductive biographies with their conjugal, educational and employment biographies; (c) including both women and men in the analysis; and (d) applying event history analysis techniques as statistical tools.