TFR essay

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G4mr5iz8eXFi7qZUTBssmnE8pFTANqR_Pec76kl3SWc/edit



Grace Welzenbach
Mr. Fendryk
AP Human Geography
13 November 2019

 Fertility Rates Across the World
Total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children a woman will have through her childbearing years (ages 15-49).  On average, the worldwide TFR is 2.5. A TFR of two is the magic number for sustaining population. If a TFR drops to one the population will divide in half. When a set of two people have one child the one child will only replace one parent and the population will decrease by a person. If a TFR is four the population will double. The population will double because there are two parents and two of the kids will replace the two parents plus there will be two more kids to add. A TFR of two is the key because the children are just replacing the parents so the population will stay steady. This is in a perfect world though.
The article “The Global Fertility Crash” examined four different countries and compared their TFR in 1960 to their TFR in 2017.  France was the first country to be discussed. In 1960, France’s TFR was 2.9 and in 2017 it was 1.9. The next country discussed was Saudi Arabia which had a TFR of 7.2 in 1960 and in 2017 it was down to 2.4. This is a very drastic change and it is an important one. It is important because it went from almost tripling the population of Saudi Arabia to just over the steady rate. The next country was China. The TFR of China was at 5.8 in 1960 and in 2017 it was down to 1.7. The last country discussed in the article was Nigeria. In 1960, the TFR was 6.4 and in 2017 it was 5.5. This slight decrease will still cause Nigeria’s population to keep increasing (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019).
TFR is a good way to see the growth or decline of a country’s population in a statistical way but it does not look at the intense societal pressure women in various countries face about  when to get married and how many children they should have. The article also examines France, Saudia Arabia, China, and Nigeria’s societal and economic influences on having kids.
Celine Grislain from France was interviewed about her decision to have kids. Celine has three children ages 5, 3, and 1. Grislain says, “When I became pregnant [with my first child], I had already done a job interview for a new post, so I had to tell my future employer that I’d arrive four months later than planned, but it didn’t set me back. For my second child, I had applied for a post managing a bigger team. I told my employer, but they said that didn’t affect their decision. And for the third, nobody said anything when I told them.” (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019) Grislain does not let her job hold her back from having kids. She also says balancing her job and her children forces her to be more efficient. Grislain had to consider the economics of having children. She says, “I get a small amount of financial support…but the credit is capped, and having a nanny to ourselves makes a big extra cost.” (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019). There are ups and downs of balancing children and a job but she has her husband to support her decisions and help with the cooking.
Lubna Alkhaldi is from Saudi Arabia where she is a fashion designer and a news anchor at her local television station. Alkhaldi is single because she is no longer at an age Saudia Arabia’s society considers suitable for marriage (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019). The society may not like her decisions, but she keeps to herself and tries not to worry about what others think. “…I get calls sometimes from people who are not happy. They tell me, for instance, to cover my face. My face is my identity.” (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019). Alkhaldi works hard for herself and makes her own decisions, “I am very proud of the decisions I have taken. I am very happy with myself. In our Saudi society, I am no longer at a suitable age for marriage, but I don’t consider age as an impediment. I know that when I find the right man we will respect each other, no matter what the challenges and defects- if you consider age a defect- are,” says Alkhaldi (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019).  While others in society do not support her single status, Alkhaldi has the support of her family.  She wants to make and build her own family out of love and not have others decide who she should marry. Love matches are not common in Saudi society so Alkhaldi made the decision not to get married. (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019).
 Summer Guan and her husband from Beijing have one child. As soon as Guan found out she was pregnant she began to experience unfair treatment from her supervisors. Guan was required to travel and when she applied for sick leave they refused it.  She even tried to quit but the company would not give her the proper paperwork to do so. Guan says in her interview, “The whole incident has taken a toll on my personal life. I was a confident career woman, and financially independent, too. But now my confidence has been chipped away. I suffered from postpartum depression, and sometimes I woke up in the middle of the night crying. I blame myself for not taking good care of my child, and the regret will accompany me for my entire life.” (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019). Society, in this case Guan’s workplace, changed the way Guan saw herself after she had a baby. Prior to childbirth she was confident in herself but the way her company treated her caused her to lose her confidence and she says she will never be able to gain it back. (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019).
Abosede George-Ogan from Nigeria and her husband have three children. George-Ogan was single for 11 years after she graduated university. The expectation was for her to get married young, but the time was never right for her. She did not let her age or other people’s opinions stop her from having kids. She says, “By the time I got married, it was my decision. Yes, I was conscious of the fact that I was getting older, but it wasn’t as a result of pressure or urgency. I always wanted to have kids, no question. To be honest, now I wouldn’t change anything. Maybe the days where I felt like, really why am I not married? I feel like there is some good in getting married a little later-what our society calls late- because you are very clear about what marriage is. I feel like really and truly, if you were single for 10 years, you could accelerate your career to a point where when you got married, there’s no stopping you anymore” (Tartar, Recht, & Qiu 2019). George-Ogan’s confidence allowed her to have a happy marriage and she did not allow the stigma of a late marriage to discourage her.
All these women share the message of not letting society’s expectations or opinions affect your personal feelings on marriage and childbirth.  
Works Cited

Tartar, Andre, et al. “Global Fertility Crisis.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 31 Oct. 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-global-fertility-crash/.

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