The Relationship between Reflexivity Gender Identity and Women's Fertility: A Study among Married Women in Urban Areas of Kashan County, Iran

The expansion of modernity and globalization has led to the diversity of identity sources and reflexivity of identities of the past among women. The method of this research is survey and by selecting 385 married women aged 18-44 years in urban areas of the city of Kashan by the multi-stage cluster sampling method. The results of this research indicate that in all dimensions of gender identity studied except for maternal identity and body image management, the average score of women is higher than the expected average. Multivariate analysis showed among all the attitude variables related to the reflexivity identity, only the attitude toward maternal identity had an effect on women's fertility; The fertility of the studied women decreases as it become more modern. Also, the results of the path analysis indicated the mediating and central role of maternal identity in the indirect effect of some other gender identity variables on fertility. This issue highlights the importance of the attitude towards maternal identity. Since women don't summarize their identity as in the past in family, the motherhood role and having children, it is recommended that expansion of facilities and support programs for mothers and reduction of conflicts between the motherhood role and other sources of new identity of women such as employment and education should be placed on the agenda of population policies.