Research report no.11 2004
'It's not for lack of wanting kids...'
A report on the Fertility Decision Making Project
by Ruth Weston, Lixia Qu, Robyn Parker and Michael Alexander
In collaboration with the Australian Government Office for Women, Department of Family and Community Services, the Australian Institute of Family Studies conducted a major survey to explore the decisions that Australian men and women are making about having children. The project was completed in November 2004.
The Institute thanks the Office for Women for the opportunity to be involved in this important project. The report has been prepared for a wide audience including policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and the general public. It is hoped that this work will provide a better understanding of the reasons for the total fertility rate in Australia being at an all-time low.
Foreword
The decline in fertility in Australia and beyond is increasingly seen as a crisis. The total fertility rate is cited almost daily, like a procreative Dow Jones Index. Prognostications and predictions of the likely impacts on all aspects of Australian life have become an industry. While the figures are of concern to many, to others they are not.
The decline is beyond doubt, while the cause remains a matter of great conjecture. What lies behind the statistics? Are fertility decisions merely a matter of lifestyle choices, as some would wish to trivialise it? How do individuals make decisions about whether to have children or not? When it comes to having children, is there a gulf between what people expect and what they would ideally want? How diverse are the patterns of aspirations, expectations? These are questions of fundamental importance for the nation and for those who frame public policy.
The Office for Women is to be congratulated in commissioning the Australian Institute of Family Studies to undertake the groundbreaking research that has resulted in this publication. "It's not for the lack of wanting kids..." reports the findings of the Fertility Decision Making Project and provides the first indepth analyses of the aspirations, expectations and ideals of Australians as related to the question of whether to have children, or not. It succeeds in going beyond the statistics by putting a human face to the numbers. Finally, it challenges some of the widely-held misconceptions, inappropriate assumptions and enduring myths that surround the topic of fertility decision-making.
The Institute's research team, so ably led by Ruth Weston, included Robyn Parker, Lixia Qu and Michael Alexander. They are to be applauded for making such a landmark, substantial and readable contribution on this topic.
I am delighted that the Australian Institute of Family Studies has been able to be involved in a project that will be of such widespread interest, immediate value and signal relevance to social policy.
Professor Alan Hayes
Director
Australian Institute of Family Studies
Acknowledgements
This work was undertaken by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in partnership with the Australian Government Office for Women, Department of Family and Community Services. As always, a report of this nature is the result of the combined efforts of many people. We would particularly like to thank our colleagues at the Office for Women, especially Leonie Campbell and Louise Falconer, for their efforts in launching the project and for their continued support during the challenging process of constructing a survey of this magnitude and standing.
Since the project began, we have benefited from the encouragement of David Stanton, the former Director of the Institute (2000-2003) who set us off on this journey, and from the guidance of Professor David de Vaus who, in his previous capacity as Senior Research Advisor at the Institute, provided invaluable expertise in the design and development of the project. Institute researcher Anna Ferro provided invaluable assistance with setting up and maintaining the reference database and preparing the qualitative data incorporated into this report.
During the intense stage of report writing, Professor Alan Hayes, Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and Deputy Director, Dr Alison Morehead provided valuable comments and insights, and were a source of enormous support and encouragement.
While many contributed to this work, it is the authors who are responsible for any errors or omissions.
Finally, we are grateful to the participants in the Institute's Fertility Decision Making Project for their generous contribution of time and, above all, their sharing of myriad details about deeply personal aspects of their lives.