Demographic Change and the Roles and Status of Women

In preindustrial societies, women could combine a familial with an economic role. With industrialization, eco nomic production was removed from the home; thus, women lost their economic role. The reductions in natality and mortal ity that accompanied the Industrial Revolution in the West re sulted in a smaller proportion of women's lives being devoted to the bearing and rearing of children. In Western countries, declines in mortality contributed to a surplus of women in the marriageable ages. This surplus increased the proportion of single women. The larger numbers of women remaining single and the diminished importance of the reproductive role for married women required the redefinition of the roles and status of women to permit increased economic participation. Such a redefinition is also likely as mortality declines in de veloping countries. Thus, in these countries, economic activ ity of women outside the home will probably increase from its present low level. Moreover, increases in marital duration as well as other changes in marital patterns should lead to a decrease in natality and an improvement in the status of women within marriage.