A Study Of The Effect Of Marriage Patterns On Women’s Fertility Desire

At present,the problem of a continuous decrease in the birth rate in China is becoming increasingly serious,and the number of women of childbearing age,especially those in their fertile prime period,is declining.With the general status quo of fertility decisions returning to the family,fertility decisions can be said to be the result of interaction and mutual discussion between couples,while the marriage and childbearing concepts of contemporary young people have changed significantly with the development of the times,and the marriage matching pattern has changed.The traditional model of strong men and weak women is gradually replaced by equality between men and women.As women become more educated and advance in their careers,the pattern of mate selection changes,while the external resources they have access to facilitate them gaining more power in the process of family reproductive decisions,and even play a decisive role in reproductive decisions.Analyze women’s fertility intentions under different marriage patterns from the family level,and make suggestions for the government to formulate and optimize targeted fertility policies according to different family situations from the perspective of public administration,so as to strengthen the awareness of gender equality,increase women’s fertility intentions,and promote the long-term steady development of the population.This paper builds a research framework based on gender equality theory,relative resources theory to describe the marriage patterns and fertility intentions of married women of childbearing age from the perspective of family and gender equality.Poisson regression and multicategorical regression models were used to analyze the fertility intentions of married women of childbearing age under different marriage matches.It is concluded that the number of children intended by married women of childbearing age in Anhui Province is mainly two,while "having both boy and girl children" is the dominant gender preference.At the individual level,women’s age has a negative effect on the number of children they intend to have,i.e.,the increase in age reduces their willingness to have children.Agricultural employment increases women’s fertility intentions compared to non-agricultural employment.Compared to non-agricultural households,agricultural households increase the number of children women intend to have and the preference for "having both boy and girl children" is stronger.From a family perspective,an increase in the number of female siblings raises female fertility intentions.Household housing size has a positive effect on the fertility intentions of married women of childbearing age,i.e.,an increase in housing size promotes an increase in the number of children women intend to have,while an increase in annual household income decreases women’s fertility intentions.In terms of marriage pattern,compared with the traditional marriage pattern of older men and younger women,the marriage pattern of older women and younger men increases women’s willingness to have children;the marriage pattern of couples of the same age increases women’s "girl preference" or "boy preference".Compared with the same education level,the marriage patterns of highly educated male and low educated female or the reverse reduce women’s fertility intentions,and the marriage patterns of highly educated male and low educated female increase women’s "indifference" to gender preference.Compared to a couple with the same occupational level,a male-high-female marriage pattern reduces the number of children women intend to have,while a male-high-female marriage pattern reduces women’s intention to have children compared to a couple with the same annual income.Compared to a couple with the same occupational level,a male-high-female-low marriage pattern reduces the number of children women intend to have,while a male-high-female-low marriage pattern reduces women’s intention to have children compared to a couple with the same annual income.Base on above to promote women’s willingness to have children from a public administration perspective.Improve the maternity insurance system and maternity leave system to protect women’s health in childbirth;improve and perfect the childcare service system to ease the pressure of childcare for dual-worker families;and increase the protection of women’s employment rights and interests to ease the employment difficulties of women of childbearing age.Building a fertility-friendly environment and promoting sustainable and stable population development by creating a gender-equal employment environment,promoting gender equality mainstreaming in families,and building an inclusive fertility policy system.Figure [6] table [19] reference [57]...