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The Fertile Fields of Policy? Examining Fertility Decision-Making and Policy Settings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

Jane Maree Maher
Jane Maree Maher*
Affiliation:
Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research, School of Political and Social Inquiry Monash UniversityVIC 3800, Australia E-mail: janemaree.maher@Arts.Monash.edu.au
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Abstract

OECD data suggest a significant gap between desired fertility rates and the total fertility rate achieved in developed industrial nations. In a qualitative study conducted in Australia in 2002 and 2003, people were asked how family policies influenced their decisions to have children. Participants did not clearly associate their fertility choices and prevailing policy settings. But their decision-making was grounded in commonplace accounts of incompatibility in balancing work and family. This article considers how individual choices may be shaped by such social and policy discourses and what implications this has for our understanding of the relationship between fertility choices and policy settings.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 159 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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