Four questions regarding the relationship between gender roles and Population

By well-wisher

Thu, 22 Jan 2015
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  1. Could female equality be permanently maintained in an agricultural society with a high mortality rate and low life expectancy? Wouldn’t there be continued pressure upon women to have lots of children regardless of things like equal education/opportunities or representation of women in the media?
  2. Won’t those belonging to traditional cultures where women are expected to have lots of children always come to outnumber those belonging to modern cultures where there is no pressure upon women to have children and contraception and abortion are freely available? If those belonging to traditional cultures are having more offspring won’t their attitudes (say you lumped all the muslims, hindus and other people belonging to traditional cultures, even conservative Roman Catholics, together), in the long run, become more prevalent in the world than the attitudes of those belonging to modern cultures?
  3. Won’t modern western countries where women are not under pressure to have children, and where contraception and abortion are freely available, constantly suffer from a shortage of labour and be forced to allow foreign immigrants from traditional cultures to enter them in order to fill jobs therefore have to allow a continual influx of people with values from traditional cultures and therefore have the constant threat of their modern western values being eroded?
  4. In a democratic country; if those originating from traditional cultures become, simply by having lots of children, a majority how would a government sustain modern, liberal western values?
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Submitted by Canonette on

1. By 'agricultural' can I take it that you mean, 'developing' (used to say Third World, but I think it's considered un-PC now).  I think that there's a correlation between poverty and large family size, so yes, you're right.

2.  No, I don't think so.

3. Yes, re: labour/immigration, but I don't believe that to be the case with regards to values.

4. Yes, modern values could be sustained rather than being eroded by an influx of traditional values (but only if we resist the influence of less progressive ideologies).

Your approach seems to be dialectic, which is fine with me.  However, I think that people coming here from traditional cultures don't necessarily want to hang on to their traditional values.  They are more likely to become 'modern' than they are to erode modern values with their presence.  This is because they are less likely to wield power politically, economically or ideologically and because their children are educated here and will be influenced by the media, etc.  The biggest spanner in the works of my argument is religion - if economic migrants bring with them a strong religious culture of oppression with regards to women, then that could threaten female equality.  Which is why I believe in a separation of state and religion and I am against faith schools, concessions to Sharia law, etc.

I'm not anti-immigration by the way.  I'm not sure if I'm coming across a bit UKIP?!  I just value the freedoms I currently enjoy as a woman.