The big idea: Gender equality and fertility are tightly linked.
How the link works
- When women gain education, jobs and rights, families tend to have fewer children — so fertility falls.
- Governments then use population policies either to raise births (pro-natal) or lower them (anti-natal).
- Many also run policies to advance gender equality.
Key terms
- Fertility rate — the average number of children a woman has during her lifetime.
- Gender equality — women and men having equal rights, opportunities and status.
- Pro-natal policy — a policy that encourages more births (e.g. baby bonuses, parental leave).
- Anti-natal policy — a policy that discourages births to slow population growth.
Family size is shrinking almost everywhere (fertility rate, approximate)
| Region | About 1970 | Early 2020s | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| World | 4.8 | 2.3 | more than halved |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 6.7 | 4.5 | falling, but still the highest |
| South Asia (India) | 5.6 | 2.0 | India now below replacement |
| East Asia (China, South Korea) | 5.5 | about 1.0 | among the lowest on Earth (South Korea under 0.8) |
| Latin America | 5.0 | 1.8 | below replacement |
| Europe | 2.3 | 1.4-1.5 | below replacement for decades |
Trends in sex ratios
- Son preference at birth — the natural ratio is about 105 boys per 100 girls. Sex-selective abortion pushed China to about 117 and parts of north-west India above 110 in the 2000s; both have fallen back since bans and campaigns.
- Labour migration — the Gulf states import mostly male workers: Qatar and the UAE have more than two men for every woman.
- Ageing — women live longer, so the oldest age groups are mostly female everywhere; in Russia men's much shorter life expectancy makes the gap very wide.
- Why it matters — a surplus of young men (China's "missing women") raises bride trafficking and social tension; a shortage of women limits future births.
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Turning women's status into lower fertility
- Education — girls who stay in school marry later and have children later, shortening the childbearing years.
- Paid work — women in careers face an opportunity cost to having children, so they choose smaller families.
- Decision-making power — when women control household choices, they can plan and limit family size.
- Health & family planning — better access to contraception lets women choose to have fewer children.
Suggest two reasons why fertility rates fall when women's status improves.
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Develop the point: Suggest/Explain needs development — don't just say 'women are educated'; say educated -> marry later -> fewer children.
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Two kinds of policy: Governments manage natural population change with pro-natal policies (to raise low fertility) or anti-natal policies (to slow fast growth). Many also run gender-equality policies, which often lower fertility as a side effect.
Real examples (named, original wording)
- France — generous parental leave and child benefits (pro-natal) to lift a low fertility rate.
- Singapore — switched from anti-natal in the 1970s to pro-natal incentives once fertility fell too far.
- Rwanda — legal quotas put women in over half of parliament seats, advancing gender equality.
- Bangladesh — community family-planning workers raised contraception use and lowered fertility.
Set out two distinct policies that governments or societies use to advance gender equality and explain how each works.
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How an anti-natalist policy is carried out
- Family planning — free contraception and advice at clinics and schools.
- Incentives and penalties — benefits or tax breaks for small families; reduced benefits or fines above a limit.
- Laws — a limit on family size, or a higher legal age of marriage.
- Education and media — keeping girls in school; campaigns that promote small families.
Case study — China’s one-child policy (1980-2015): A strict anti-natalist policy, replaced by a two-child limit in 2016 and a three-child limit in 2021.
Who was affected: girls, as a preference for sons pushed the sex ratio at birth to about 117 boys per 100 girls in the 2000s; elderly parents, who now depend on one adult child (the “4-2-1” family); rural families, often allowed a second child if the first was a girl.
How this is tested: A gender-equality infographic — bars or percentages for women in work, education, STEM and politics — is the usual stimulus here.
What the figure asks
Estimate
A share off a bar (a quick read).
Determine
A missing percentage (e.g. 100 − 70).
Explain
A suitable presentation technique.
Evaluate
How well the evidence backs a claim such as 'this country has achieved gender equality'.
Quick reads first, then Explain, then Evaluate.
Read the axis first. Each bar is the % of that group who are women — the rest are men.
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Estimate the share of public-sector workers who are women, and determine the share of graduates who are men.
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Gender indicators for one Gulf state (illustrative infographic data)
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Women working in the public sector | 66% |
| University graduates who are women | 70% |
| University graduates who are men | 30% |
| Women among STEM graduates | 56% |
| Women in the national parliament | 50% |
IB-style question — read the infographic
Using the data above: (a) estimate the share of women working in the public sector [1]; (b) determine the percentage of university graduates who are men [1]; (c) suggest one presentation technique to display the graduate split [2].
How to answer each part
- (a) Estimate the public-sector share. Read the row -> about 66% of public-sector workers are women.
- (b) Determine the male graduate share. Women are 70% of graduates, so men are 100 - 70 = 30%.
- (c) Suggest a technique. A pie chart (or divided bar) shows the 70%/30% split as proportions of a whole, so the gender gap is seen at a glance.
Final answer
(a) ~66%; (b) 30%; (c) a pie or divided bar chart, because it shows each share as part of the whole.
Evaluate how well the infographic evidence backs up a government's claim that the country has achieved gender equality.
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See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.