title: An investigation of the unexpectedly high fertility of secular, native-born Jews in Israel.
abstract: Secular, native-born Jews in Israel enjoy the socio-economic status of many affluent populations living in other democratic countries, but have above-replacement period and cohort fertility. This study revealed a constellation of interrelated factors which together characterize the socio-economic, cultural, and political environment of this fertility behaviour and set it apart from that of other advanced societies. The factors are: a combination of state and family support for childbearing; a dual emphasis on the social importance of women's employment and fertility; policies that support working mothers within a conservative welfare regime; a family system in which parents provide significant financial and caregiving aid to their adult children; relatively egalitarian gender-role attitudes and household behaviour; the continuing importance of familist ideology and of marriage as a social institution; the role of Jewish nationalism and collective behaviour in a religious society characterized by ethno-national conflict; and a discourse which defines women as the biological reproducers of the nation. Supplementary material for this article is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2016.1195913.
authors.affiliation: a The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
authors.forename: Barbara S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Okun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D007585:Jews / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Israel; familism; family-size ideal; fertility; nationalism; parity; religion; religiosity