The family is the tiniest multi-person population of interest, the tiniest econo
The family is the tiniest multi-person population of interest, the tiniest economy. As illustrated in Figure 23-1, family structure influences and responds to fertility, mortality, and migration. It influences and responds to economic pressures. An integral part of our culture, family structure is a matrix in which economic and demographic pressures play out.
Family structure is affected by many things, including the three population processes (fertility, mortality, and migration), the sex ratio, and economic pressures. In turn, family structure affects the economy. For example, the rate of divorce affects the demand for housing. The rate of divorce also affects savings and labour force participation. It can also affect the completed fertility rate, the migration rate, health, and mortality, thereby affecting the economy indirectly.
Since roughly the 1970s, western societies have increasingly accepted and adopted new family structures. The number of single parent families, step-parent families, blended families, cohabiting adults, and LGBTQ2S+ unions has greatly increased.
This change can be attributed to secularization as well as to activism, publicity, and discussion. There has also been an economic connection: a rising standard of living makes people less dependent on family members’ support and opinion, and a strong social safety net gives them courage to try unconventional things.
The economy can affect family structure more directly. A poor economy may force people to migrate in search of work, which may separate family members or prevent people from getting together. A high cost of living may give couples the incentive to stay together during low moments in their relationship, but it can also be a strain that drives people apart.
As families form or break apart, there may be economic consequences as well as emotional ones. Some innovative family structures provide a strong framework for health and prosperity. Others are weaker and may place family members at greater economic risk. When family structure works well, love, skills and ideas are shared, as well as expenses, care of dependents, and economic risk.
Women in the workforce
In the West, many more women work outside the home than was the case in the first half of the twentieth century, when gender was always perceived as binary, when gender roles were more rigid than they are today, and when more couples worked together on a family farm. Feminist activism, as well as affirmative action, legislation, literature, media, and urbanization have expanded women’s opportunities. The greater participation of women in postsecondary education prepares them to work outside the home, and most expect to do so.
As we learned in Chapter 20, the influx of a large number of new workers into a labour market can depress the wage unless and until improvements in efficiency or capital accumulation expand labour demand.
We have already discussed how an increase in education and in the variety of opportuniti