Gender roles and education as elements for the explanation of fertility by the type of settlement in Serbia

Abstract

This text is aimed at the consideraton of differences related to fertility of urban and non-urban settlements in Serbia, from the point of view of differentiation concerning education and gender roles. The discussion framework consists of the results of relevant empirical researches that consider gender equality, as well as the presented data about level of education for both types of settlements. In terms of fertility, we used census data and presented two indicators. These are the cumulative live birth rates and the shares of women who have not given birth. The focus is on the generations born in the second half of the 20th century, observing the cohorts that are in the reproductive period, as well as those that came out. Differences between urban and non-urban settlements are not only observed for Serbia as a whole, but are also placed within the framework of statical regional areas. The decline in cumulative fertility, the postponement of parenthood and the shares of women without children both in the optimal reproductive period and in the cohorts at the end of reproductive period are more pronounced in the urban population. However, these tendencies also have existed in non-urban settlements, despite the fact that the observed fertility indicators do not reflect the difficulty of regulating low fertility in this type of settlement. Very low cumulative fertility rates in the urban settlements are the result of insufficient adjustment of the institutional framework to emancipatory processes in the sphere of gender roles. The negative effects of traditional patriarchy in non-urban settlements are more visible through some other demographic indicators that are closely related to the issue of low fertility. Hence, the importance of the gender aspect cannot be neglected when it comes to non-urban settlements.