Zhang, L: MALE FERTILITY PATTERNS & DETE

Fertility is one of the major areas of study in demography. Until recently, however, studies of fertility have focused almost exclusively on the roles and patterns of females and their reproductive behaviors. Males have been largely ignored in fertility studies. This one-sex tradition of fertility studies has highlighted an important demographic concern: whether fertility variation be entirely understood without giving equal consideration to males.

The purpose of this book, then, is to question the assumption of female primacy in fertility studies and to emphasize the importance of including men in such studies. The book commences with a review of the existing literature on male fertility and the possible reasons that account for why men have been ignored in fertility studies. The study then presents an empirical analysis of male fertility by contrasting male and female fertility at both aggregate and individual levels. At the aggregate level, the book examines the changing pattern of male fertility rates as compared to female fertility rates in 43 countries and locations, particularly in Taiwan. The data used for aggregate level analysis come from the 2001 United Nations Demographic Yearbook and the 1964 to 2004 Taiwan-Fukien Demographic Yearbooks and the 2004 National Statistics Reports by the Statistics Bureau of Republic of China. The individual level analysis focuses on exploring the fertility determinants of men as compared to those of women through analyzing data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) conducted in the United States. The book devotes particular attention to Taiwan and the United States because male fertility data in these two locations are readily available.

By demonstrating male and female fertility differentials in rates and determinants in various social contexts, the author concludes that fertility variation cannot be fully represented by females and also discuss the implications of this research for family planning policies and suggest additional research attention be focused on the role and commitments of men when considering factors leading to decisions about bearing and rearing children.