Absent and problematic men: demographic accounts of male reproductive roles

摘要

Although both men and women make important contributions to bringing children into life, demographic studies of fertility and family planning have focused overwhelmingly on women. This article describes how the emphasis on women developed and how it has slowly shifted in recent years. Our aim is to show that the limitations of demography's theoretical approaches to reproduction and its empirical neglect of men have been mutually reinforcing. The article addresses the ways in which assumptions about gender roles, the history and motivations of demography, and its methodological limitations have influenced the field.