Volume 43 - Article 25 | Pages 707–744  

Women's employment and fertility in a global perspective (1960–2015)

By Julia Behrman, Pilar Gonalons-Pons

Abstract

Background: Scant research explores the association between women's employment and fertility on a truly global scale due to limited cross-national comparative standardized information across contexts.

Methods: This paper compiles a unique dataset that combines nationally representative country-level data on women's wage employment from the International Labor Organization with fertility and reproductive health measures from the United Nations and additional information from UNESCO, OECD, and the World Bank. This dataset is used to explore the linear association between women's employment and fertility/reproductive health around the world between 1960 and 2015.

Results: Women's wage employment is negatively correlated with total fertility rates and unmet need for family planning and positively correlated with modern contraceptive use in every major world region. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that these findings hold for nonagricultural employment only.

Contribution: Our analysis documents the linear association between women's employment and fertility on a global scale and widens the discussion to include reproductive health outcomes as well. Better understanding of these empirical associations on a global scale is important for understanding the mechanisms behind global fertility change.

Author's Affiliation

• Julia Behrman - Northwestern University, United States of America EMAIL
• Pilar Gonalons-Pons - University of Pennsylvania, United States of America EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

An exploration of differences in ideal family size between Muslim and non-Muslim women in France
Volume 41 - Article 22

The relationship between women's paid employment and women's stated son preference in India
Volume 36 - Article 52

Out of Sync? Demographic and other social science research on health conditions in developing countries
Volume 24 - Article 2

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Higher incomes are increasingly associated with higher fertility: Evidence from the Netherlands, 2008–2022
Volume 51 - Article 26    | Keywords: fertility, income, inequalities, Netherlands, parenthood

The transition to adulthood in Europe at the intersection of gender and parental socioeconomic status
Volume 51 - Article 23    | Keywords: Europe, Europe, event history, event history, gender, multilevel analysis, parental socio-economic status, stratification, transition to adulthood

Trajectories of US parents’ divisions of domestic labor throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
Volume 51 - Article 12    | Keywords: childcare, COVID-19, division of labor, fathers, gender, housework, mothers

The short- and long-term determinants of fertility in Uruguay
Volume 51 - Article 10    | Keywords: fertility, panel data, stages of female reproductive life, time series, Uruguay

Are highly educated partners really more gender egalitarian? A couple-level analysis of social class differentials in attitudes and behaviors
Volume 50 - Article 34    | Keywords: attitudes, couple analysis, education, educational level, gender, gender roles, housework, social class differentials