<Ul> <Li> Increasing literacy and employment lowers the uncritical acceptance of childbearing and motherhood as measures of the status of women . Working women have less time to raise children; this is particularly an issue where fathers traditionally make little or no contribution to child - raising, such as southern Europe or Japan . Valuation of women beyond childbearing and motherhood becomes important . </Li> <Li> Improvements in contraceptive technology are now a major factor . Fertility decline is caused as much by changes in values about children and gender as by the availability of contraceptives and knowledge of how to use them . </Li> </Ul> <Li> Increasing literacy and employment lowers the uncritical acceptance of childbearing and motherhood as measures of the status of women . Working women have less time to raise children; this is particularly an issue where fathers traditionally make little or no contribution to child - raising, such as southern Europe or Japan . Valuation of women beyond childbearing and motherhood becomes important . </Li> <Li> Improvements in contraceptive technology are now a major factor . Fertility decline is caused as much by changes in values about children and gender as by the availability of contraceptives and knowledge of how to use them . </Li> <P> The resulting changes in the age structure of the population include a decline in the youth dependency ratio and eventually population aging . The population structure becomes less triangular and more like an elongated balloon . During the period between the decline in youth dependency and rise in old age dependency there is a demographic window of opportunity that can potentially produce economic growth through an increase in the ratio of working age to dependent population; the demographic dividend . </P>

Why are there no countries in stage 1 of the dtm