Danielle Gauvreau

Canadian Fertility Transitions: Quebec and Ontario at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

This article uses nominal data from the Canadian Families Project national sample to analyze and compare fertility in Canada’s two largest provinces at the turn of the twentieth century. The authors argue that material and cultural factors must be considered if similarities and differences in reproductive behavior between Quebec and Ontario are to be understood. They use regression models to identify the independent influence of factors such as religion, language, occupation, class, urban versus rural residence, and literacy on marital child-woman ratios in the two provinces. Fertility levels in Quebec were about 50 percent higher than those in Ontario, where a very conspicuous downward trend had begun by the 1870s. But Quebec fertility in this period was not as monolithically high as some authors—and much of the province’s popular culture—would suggest. Nor did Quebec fail entirely to “turn the contraceptive corner” in the decades after 1871.

Women, Priests, and Physicians: Family Limitation in Quebec, 1940–1970

The fertility transition occurred relatively later, and at a much slower pace, in Quebec than in most industrializing countries. Quantitative data can help to situate the general trends and the contributing factors. Qualitative data reveal the hostile context in which Catholic couples tried to fulfill their aspirations to have smaller families. They also show variability in the practices of clergy members.

Socio-economic status and fertility decline: Insights from historical transitions in Europe and North America

The timings of historical fertility transitions in different regions are well understood by demographers, but much less is known regarding their specific features and causes. In the study reported in this paper, we used longitudinal micro-level data for five local populations in Europe and North America to analyse the relationship between socio-economic status and fertility during the fertility transition. Using comparable analytical models and class schemes for each population, we examined the changing socio-economic differences in marital fertility and related these to common theories on fertility behaviour. Our results do not provide support for the hypothesis of universally high fertility among the upper classes in pre-transitional society, but do support the idea that the upper classes acted as forerunners by reducing their fertility before other groups. Farmers and unskilled workers were the latest to start limiting their fertility. Apart from these similarities, patterns of class differences in fertility varied significantly between populations.

Demography and discourse in transition:: Quebec Fertility at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

This article is part of a broader research project which seeks to shed new light on Quebecs fertility decline between the 1850s and the 1950s, notably by breaking down barriers between cultural and economic explanations and between quantitative and qualitative analysis. It explores relationships between demographic trends and the public discourse around reproduction in the province at the turn of the twentieth century. Using a collection of articles selected from French-language periodicals published between 1870 and 1920, the article analyzes the reactions of certain public commentators to the prospect of fertility decline in this traditionally prolific province. They identify a shift in the public discussion of fertility in Quebec during World War I. Pride in and celebration of Quebecs large families was superseded in the dominant nationalist discourse by anxiety about diminished rates of reproduction and natalist exhortations to women who might be tempted to restrict their fertility. After documentin...

»Empêcher la famille« : Fécondité et contraception au Québec, 1920-60

L’évolution à la baisse de la taille des familles à partir de la fin du XIXe siècle au Quebec ne peut s’être produite que parce que les couples d’alors ont utilisé des moyens pour limiter la taille de leur descendance. Dans un effort pour mieux comprendre cette evolution, le présent article met à profit la richesse des approches qualitative et quantitative pour explorer les questions suivantes: moyens de contraception utilisés, facteurs liés au recours à la contraception, motifs invoqués en faveur ou a l’encontre de celle-ci, dynamique du processus de décision au sein du couple. L’information utilisée concerne essentiellement la période allant de 1920 à 1960; elle provient de deux corpus d’enquêtes orales réalisées respectivement à Montreal et au Saguenay, ainsi que de l’Enquête de fecondité du Quebec de 1971. L’analyse de ces données laisse entrevoir l’impact de facteurs à la fois démographiques (rapidité de constitution de la famille), socioéconomiques (catégorie socioprofessionnelle du mari) et culturels (éducation, religion) qui interviennent à différents niveaux, individuel et collectif, où se joue cette importante révolution des comportements.

The mechanics of the baby boom: Unveiling the role of the epidemiologic transition

Recent research on the baby boom and its causes has shown that common explanations, such as the recuperation of births following the Great Depression or Second World War, are not sufficient to account for the phenomenon. However, that research has stressed the role of increasing nuptiality. In this paper, we argue that the increase in survivorship of children and young people that resulted from the epidemiologic transition accounted for a large portion of the increased number of births during the baby boom. We use a microsimulation model to assess the respective roles of mortality, nuptiality, fertility, and immigration on the size and dynamics of the boom in Quebec, Canada. Results show that decreasing mortality contributed significantly to the baby boom, along with immigration and nuptiality changes, while fertility rates attenuated the phenomenon. These results substantiate the hypothesis that the epidemiologic transition was an important cause of the baby boom.