21/01/2025 - DemoSoc Seminar: Gendered Family Preferences: Higher Education and Intergenerational Divergence in Eight Low Fertility Countries

The DemoSoc seminars at Universitat Pompeu Fabra aims to gather all researchers at UPF and beyond working on the fields of demography and sociology (social stratification).

The next DemoSoc Seminar of this course will take place on:

January, 21th

12.00 h 

20.283 (Jaume I)

Gendered Family Preferences: Higher Education and Intergenerational Divergence in Eight Low Fertility Countries 

Alícia Adserà, Princeton University, will be in charge of leading the session

Abstract: With educational expansion, fertility decline, shifting partnership structures, and women’s empowerment, this study examines how men and women perceive family ideals compared to their parents’ generation. The findings suggest an identity-driven shift, particularly among highly educated women, who emphasize family communication, financial stability, and gender equity over traditional markers like marriage and child-rearing. No similar transformation appears among men. At the aggregate level, cohorts with larger educational gains perceive a more pronounced generational gap in fertility ideals and in valuing communication and egalitarian relations, again primarily among women. These findings come from a factorial survey experiment conducted in urban China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Italy, Norway, and the United States. They point to a significant intergenerational identity difference with important demographic implications.