Changes in population have long and short term effects on a place’s economy, culture and politics. Women play a key role in these changes.

Women and Education

• Women are better able to care for the children they have,

• Women have children later in life because they are continuing their education.

• They utilize their education which leads to choosing to have fewer children and seeking work opportunities.

Women and Employment

• When women are employed they bring in more money for their household which can help provide for their children’s health and education.

• Employment also allows women to play more roles in society and helps advance a country economically when more working-age adults are contributing to the GDP.

Women and Access to Healthcare

• Women face unique health risks. These risks can affect the size and structure of population

• Countries can assess the health of women by looking at the maternal mortality rate, (annual number of female deaths per 100,000 live births from any cause related to pregnancy). Lower rates of maternal mortality are attributed to better accesss to doctors and health care facilities. More developed countries typically have a lower maternal mortality rate.

Women and Contraception

• When more women have reliable access to contraception, birth rates drop.

• Access to contraception can allow women to stay in school and in the workforce for longer periods of time.

• When women gain reliable access to contraception, it can cause a shift in social dynamics as less women are at home caring for large families

E.G Ravenstein developed a theory, “laws of migration” that notes distinct demographic patterns (including gender and family status) related to migration.

Gender Patterns

• Women are more likely to move internally within a country

• Most international migrants are young males

Youth and Migration

• Most migrants are young adults that are seeking employment. This is because they are more mobile and have less established. This can make the move easy to take advantage of opportunities elsewhere.

Short Distances

• People typically only move as far as they must. Therefore, most migrants only move short distances.

• This is related to the concept of Distance Decay (things closer together will have more interaction than things that are farther apart).

Steps

• When migrants do travel for distances they typically do so in steps.

Counter Migration

• Ravenstein predicted that each migration that flows in one direction, would flow in the opposite direction.

Rural Migration

• Most migration historically (and the most prominent pattern globally today) is from rural areas to urban areas.

Urban Areas

• Cities are places of opportunity, particularly economic opportunity, on the form of jobs.

• Migrants that move long distances will typically go to large urban areas because of the perception that these places will have more opportunities than small towns/cities.

Gravity Model

The hypothesis that more people will be attracted to large cities even if they are far away.

2.8 IMPORTANT VOCABULARY

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)- Average number of children who would be born per woman of that group in a country, assuming every woman lived through her child bearing years