Gender equality as attitude or context: what matters for fertility ideals?

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of survey participants (N = 27,062).

Predictors	Total
	Percentage
Sex
Male	44.58
Female	55.42
Marital Status
Currently married	54.34
Unmarried (Separated/Divorced/Widowed/Never married)	45.66
Child (In the household)
None	39.02
Atleast one child in the household	60.98
Work status
Currently in paid work	67.77
Not working	32.23
	Mean	Std. Dev
Years in Education	12.40	4.02
Age	35.00	9.40
Ideal number of children	2.38	0.83
Gender egalitarian attitudes (4–20)	12.39	3.84

Figure 1. Fertility Ideals (Ideal number of children per person) within countries by gender equality quartiles*.

*The countries included in the analysis are grouped according to quartiles based on their scores for the Global Gender Gap Index. Countries in Quartile 4 represent those with the highest scores on the Global Gender Gap Index, and highest levels of gender equality.

Figure 2. Aggregate gender egalitarian attitudes within countries by gender equality quartiles*.

*The countries included in the analysis are grouped according into quartiles based on their scores for the Global Gender Gap Index. Countries in Quartile 4 represent those with the highest scores on the Global Gender Gap Index, and highest levels of gender equality.

Table 2. Results from multi-level regression analysis model for fertility ideals, including interaction of individual and country-level factors (n = 27,062).

	Null Model		Model 1		Model 2		Model 3		Model 4		Model 5
	Coeff.	SE	Coeff.	SE	Coeff.	SE	Coeff.	SE	Coeff.	SE	Coeff.	SE
Intercept	2.425***	(0.047)	2.701***	(0.056)	2.711***	(0.061)	1.273	(0.665)	2.296***	(0.120)	2.268***	(0.119)
Individual-Level
Gender egalitarian attitudes			−0.021***	(0.002)	−0.017***	(0.002)	−0.018***	(0.002)	−0.018***	(0.002)	−0.011**	(0.004)
Marital Status (ref: Unmarried)
Currently married					0.024*	(0.011)	0.024*	(0.011)	0.024*	(0.011)	0.024*	(0.011)
Age of respondent					0.001	(0.001)	0.001	(0.001)	0.001	(0.001)	0.001	(0.001)
Education (years of schooling)					−0.006***	(0.001)	−0.006***	(0.001)	−0.006***	(0.001)	−0.006***	(0.001)
Work status (Ref: Currently in paid work)
Unemployed					−0.095***	(0.011)	−0.095***	(0.011)	−0.095***	(0.011)	−0.095***	(0.011)
At least one child in the household (Ref: no children)					0.107***	(0.010)	0.107***	(0.010)	0.107***	(0.010)	0.107***	(0.010)
Sex of respondent (Ref: Male)
Female					−0.017	(0.009)	−0.017	(0.009)	−0.017	(0.009)	−0.017	(0.009)
Country-Level
Global Gender Gap Index (continuous)							1.714	(0.990)
Global Gender Gap Index (Ref: level 1)
Quartile 2									0.331*	(0.137)	0.361*	(0.139)
Quartile 3									0.244	(0.129)	0.294*	(0.131)
Quartile 4									0.336*	(0.144)	0.412**	(0.146)
Interaction Effects
Ref: Gender Gap Quartile 1*Attitudes
Gender Gap Quartile 2*Attitudes											−0.007	(0.006)
Gender Gap Quartile 3*Attitudes											−0.009	(0.006)
Gender Gap Quartile 4*Attitudes											−0.013*	(0.005)
Random Effects
Gender egalitarian attitudes			0.000	(0.000)	0.000	(0.000)	0.000	(0.000)	0.000	(0.000)	0.000	(0.000)
Country-level variance	0.086	(0.020)	0.107	(0.026)	0.106	(0.026)	0.079	(0.020)	0.070	(0.018)	0.068	(0.017)
Individual-level variance	0.569	(0.005)	0.563	(0.005)	0.558	(0.005)	0.558	(0.005)	0.558	(0.005)	0.558	(0.005)
AIC	61726.73		61482.6		61230.6		61223.72		61223.37		61223.95

Significance level – * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001; Models include controls for GDP

Data availability

The data used in this study is available from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) – https://issp.org/