Generational Changes in Attitudes to Abortion

A Cross-National Comparison

Bibliographic Data

ID2237752
AuthorsJonathan Scott (0000-0002-4555-3069, Royal College of Art, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume14
Issue2
Pages177-190
Publication date1998-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0266-7215 • E-ISSN: 1468-2672
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oxfordjournals.esr.a018233
OpenAlexW2123811983
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited10

In this paper I examine generational changes in men and women's attitudes to abortion across nations and time. First, I use time-series data from British Social Attitudes and the General Social Survey of the United States to track men and women's changing attitudes. In particular, I investigate whether change is due mainly to period effects or to cohort replacement. I also compare the trajectory and pace of change in the two countries. Second, I use data from the International Social Survey Programme to compare Anglo-American attitudes with those of four other nations (Ireland, Germany, Sweden, and Poland) that have very different abortion policies. Although gender differences in attitudes to abortion are rare, generational differences tend to be conditioned on gender. As predicted, post-pill cohorts of women adopt a more favourable stance than earlier cohorts. In Britain, over the last decade, women's attitudes have become more liberal far more rapidly than men's, resulting in a gender gap in the 1990s. Gender differences in generational effects are apparent in the six-nation comparison, even when religion is taken into account. It is argued that rising expectations concerning reproductive control, together with generational succession and increasing secularization, will further increase endorsement of abortion but is unlikely to eradicate policy dispute

Abortion · Cohort · Demographic economics · Economics · General Social Survey · Geography · Pace · Political science · Secularization · Sociology · Survey data collection · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology

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