Blog 17

Describe the economic and cultural forces that shape the choice to have children—or not- in each of the countries listed in the article. Use the first hand accounts from the women in each of the countries to build your answer. You will also want to include background information about fertility rates and how we use them as human geographers. *Your response must be a minimum of 4 paragraphs. 



Answer-

The economic and cultural forces that effect fertility rates in these countries are:

France- The French fertility rate went from 2.9 in 1960 to 1.9 in 2017.  In France women make 72% of the income that men make.  The wage gap exists in this country.

Saudi-Arabia- Women in Saudi-Arabia have one of the lowest rate of labor force participation and have low economic power.  25% of the women in this country are in the workforce.  Women earn 22% of mens earnings.  In Saudi-Arabia women have very little choice in what they want to do in life, this is because men have so much power over them.  For example, the women in the account wanted to travel abroad to study media, but her dad made her study something else.

China- In China there is a limit to how much children you can have.  This limit has brought fertility rate down from 5.8 children in 1960 to 1.7 children in 2017.  The culture of women working has also led to a steep decline.  A recent crackdown on gender discrimination has also led to decreased fertility rates.  Women in china get very little sympathy.  In the account, a pregnant women was told to go. on a business trip.  worried that the condition she was in was not fit for traveling, she reached out to her CEO, who was also female.  her CEO said "overcome it".  The company that she worked hard for treated her poorly even tho she was pregnant.

Nigeria- The fertility rates have not changed much compared to other countries like China.  In 1960, the fertility rate was 6.4, in 2017 it was 5.5.  Nigeria is predicted to be a main contributor to world population growth. 


Fertility Rates are important statistics that can help determine wether the population of a place will drop or increase.  Fertility rates are the amount of live births per woman 15-65 years of age.