In the United States, the total fertility rate the number of children a woman has in her lifetime fell from seven or eight in 1800 to slightly more than two today, says J. David Hacker, assistant professor of history at Binghamton University. And with a five-year $667,237 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Hacker hopes to find out why.
"It's one of the most profound social revolutions of the period," he said. "It has all kinds of ramifications for the social and economic history of the United States, including women's ability to participate in the paid labor force, parental resources available for children's education, the age structure of the population and even the future of the social welfare state."
Declining fertility in that period was a major factor in the aging of the population. The median age of Americans rose from less than 16 years in 1850 to older than 35 in 2000, Hacker said. It is projected to reach 39.1 years in 2035.
"What's interesting about the fertility decline is that the vast majority of it takes place before there's modern contraceptive technology," Hacker said. "It's kind of ironic. Our best source of data on fertility the U.S. birth registration system was not in place until 1933, but at that point we've had almost 100 years of continuous decline in the birth rate."
For that reason, Hacker's quantitative study will rely primarily on data from the U.S. Census Bureau. He will describe the fertility decline in greater detail than previously possible, looking at differentials such as race, ethnicity, region and occupation. He will also explain the decline using multi-level empirical models.
"The census is quite rich," he said. "I am employing a method of analysis called Own Child Fertility Methods, which allows me to look at women's childbearing experience and correlate that with individual and household-level data that's available in the population census
'"/>
Contact: Gail Glover
gglover@binghamton.edu
607-777-2174
Binghamton University
12-Dec-2006