Abstract
If someone would have left the Western world some 50 years ago and would have come back at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century what would be his first observation? Maybe the completely different built-up areas nowadays with the much more intensified traffic streams, maybe the cell phones, I-pods, blackberries and other electronic equipment that everyone seems to be carrying around all of the day. If he was a she, and especially if she was a sociologist she might be surprised by women’s presence in the public room. And if he was a demographer he would be caught by the high number of older people in the streets and the relative absence of young people, except for those with some sort of immigrant background. You don’t have to look far, neither do you have to be a scholar to notice two of the major changes in Western societies during the past few decades: women’s emancipation and the changing composition of the population.
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Notes
- 1.
Although not defined in detail this book refers to motherhood in Western societies, i.e. Europe (including Central and Eastern Europe), Northern America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Elsewhere first motherhood also shifts to higher ages, but not (yet) so extensively as in the most developed world. However, over time the “Western world” is expanding as of late also some new emerging countries gradually enter that world, like for example Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey. Some of these countries increasingly feature low and late fertility behaviour.
References
Beets, G., Bouwens, A., & Schippers, J. (Eds.). (1997). Uitgesteld ouderschap. Amsterdam: Thesis Publishers, 145 pp. (in Dutch).
Beets, G., & Verloove-Vanhorick, P. (Eds.). (1992). Een slimme meid regelt haar zwangerschap op tijd. Amsterdam/Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger, 147 pp. (in Dutch).
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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
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Beets, G., Schippers, J., te Velde, E.R. (2011). Introduction. In: Beets, G., Schippers, J., te Velde, E. (eds) The Future of Motherhood in Western Societies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8969-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8969-4_1
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