Introduction
The first and second demographic transitions changed the demography of US society in the 20th century dramatically. The first demographic transition featured the improved living standards for older people and was accompanied by several government programs to support this population group. The second demographic transition affected young women and was associated with the feminist movement, although not all women were equally successful in this transition. Women’s lives in higher classes changed as they got great job opportunities, and over 48% of them started to combine parenting and work. Women from higher classes also became mothers at a later age, and by 2000 the average age of mothers of young children under the age of five was 32, while in 1980, this figure was 26. At the same time, women from higher classes managed to create strong families by changing the indicators of the divorce rate in this group. At the same time, the age of motherhood for women from the lower classes remained practically unchanged and increased from 21-22 years in 1980 to 23 years in 2000. At the same time, since the late 1990s, more women from lower classes have been combining work and raising children, which has led to the best conditions for children. The number of divorces also increased among this group; this indicates that women have become easier to get rid of unhealthy relationships, but it is also a negative trend since in the group represented, the smallest number of children communicate with their fathers. This paper aims to discuss the causes and consequences of the second demographic transition and present the policies that could fix the negative impacts.
Widened Disparities in Children’s Resources
The second demographic transition started its course in the 1960s and featured more women entering the workforce and gaining control of family, marriage, and childbirth issues. Even though this trend had positive consequences for the females of the top quartile, it also brought negative impacts for the women from the lower quartile in terms of motherhood and children’s access to parental resources. In particular, McLanahan says that women with higher education received better opportunities on the job market and tended to make better family choices than women with no higher education. Therefore, the second demographic transition led to disparities in children’s resources by social class.
Disparities in governmental social support programs for the older population and children have become another trend characteristic of the second demographic transition. Preston argues that, although this is a reasonable choice for developed nations to spend funds on bettering the living conditions of the older population through healthcare and direct support policies, the US society faced an unfortunate trend when children did not receive a comparable amount of social resources in governmental spending. Therefore, the scientist emphasized the need to reverse the trend and pay more attention to social spending on parenting for several reasons.
Scientific Arguments
Specifically, McLanahan says that feminist tendencies and the labor market crisis led to the current trends when children from lower classes were losing access to parenting resources increasingly fast. In particular, the scientist notes that women from higher classes more often created a stable relationship with a partner, so that children received resources from their fathers. The second positive factor associated with motherhood was that women from higher classes began to have children at a more mature age, which led to more responsible parenting and more active cognitive stimulation, and greater warmth in relationships with children. In addition, working women with higher education from higher classes received higher salaries, and their work did not negatively affect the amount of time spent with children. Therefore, children in families from higher classes began to live in a more favorable and stable environment, which positively affects their psycho-emotional state, school performance, and future career prospects.
At the same time, according to McLanahan, women from lower classes did not meet such favorable changes and new career prospects. In particular, a substantial percentage of these women raised their children alone, which negatively affected, first of all, the financial situation of the family. In addition, children of single mothers usually did not communicate with their fathers, who also did not provide material support in their upbringing. Therefore, among children from the lower classes, the percentage of families living in poverty has increased.
The Importance of the Disparity Issue
At the same time, Preston emphasizes that government spending on supporting older groups of the population has grown exponentially, while expenditures for supporting children have declined. This tendency had significant adverse effects on the quality of education. Due to underfunding of teachers’ salaries, less educated and intelligent educators stayed to work as teachers, and more smart ones left the profession. In addition, more and more teachers with lower educational indicators began to associate their future with pedagogy. Preston emphasizes that such a trend is hazardous, and in the future, will lead to an increase in debt, which will become a burden for future grown-ups, while their career opportunities will be lower. Therefore, if society is concerned not only with the individual but also with the shared societal future, it is necessary to allocate more resources for children.
Preston emphasizes that the underfunding of the child population is logical but at the same time unfair. The scientist emphasizes that the relation to a larger group in modern society allows it to receive more benefits since this group can assert its rights through voting. Preston notes that the group of children lacks influence in society for several reasons. First, the percentage of children continued to decline from 1960 to 1984. Secondly, only 38% of people eligible to vote had children and could vote on their behalf, although not all representatives of this group took part in the vote. In contrast, the percentage of voters among people 65 years and older was much higher. Third, children do not vote, unlike more senior adults. Finally, far fewer adults vote for retirement benefits in the context of voting for their future old age than adults who would vote for their childhood. The scientist even suggests that if a person’s life cycle developed in the opposite order, the situation might be different.
Steps to Address the Issue
McLanahan notes that the situation presented is abnormal and that the government should address the problems associated with the second demographic transition in the way they were addressed after the first demographic transition happened. The first demographic transition featured an unprecedented decrease in mortality among the older population, and to meet the need of this group, the government developed pension, healthcare, and other programs. Therefore, there should be created similar programs to meet the needs of the population affected by the second demographic transition – children from lower classes, as well as young mothers and fathers from lower classes with worse job opportunities, the mothers and fathers from both classes who are in a divorce, and their children.
McLanahan suggests that the government should elaborate on the programs that will force the fathers to support their children. Another direction of social support is the credit for the young people from the lower classes who want to create families since most people refrain from making a family because they cannot correspond to their ideas about the family, which are similar to those of the life of the higher classes. Single mothers should also receive support in rearing children, and young couples should receive psychological and emotional support to overcome the family conflicts that lead to divorces.
Thus, the causes and consequences of the second demographic transition were discussed, and the policies that could fix the negative impacts were presented. The reasons for the second demographic transition are associated with the feminist movement, greater control of women over their bodies, increased opportunities for free choice of marriage time, and greater opportunities for combining work and motherhood. These tendencies led to an increase in access to resources among children in higher-class families but did not positively impact women from lower classes. Therefore, the federal and local governments should develop policies to make a difference.