This dissertation research will allow a cultural anthropologist specialized in demography to study male attitudes towards paternity and their contributions to fertility decisions. The project will study two cohorts of men, aged 25 and 35, from Santa Clara County, California, to describe the values men have about paternity, relate these values to social class, opportunity structure and life history, and illuminate demographic and attitudinal data from large scale surveys of fertility with this ethnographic view. This research is important because most studies of fertility deal with women, yet the values and attitudes of men are equally important. This in-depth study of males will thus contribute valuable information that can serve to identify any bias in previous studies.
