The Impact of Women's Employment characteristics on the Likelihood of their Fertility during five years period of 2010-2014: Case Study of the City of Isfahan

Work conditions influence the degree to which women face reconciliation between their family and career roles. The aim of this paper is to assess whether fertility varies according to occupational characteristics in the low fertility context of the city of Isfahan. The data are derived from a retrospective survey using a questionnaire, which included histories of childbearing and employment of 552 samples of married women aged 20-40, in the city of Isfahan in the year of 2014. This paper applies a discrete-time survival model (the complementary loglog model) to explore effects of occupational variables on probability and trend of fertility. We explore how work conditions vary across branches and assess whether job-specific benefits and conditions are related to childbearing. Based on previous studies we expected to find a positive effect on fertility outcomes of public sector employment, formal employment, high wage/salary employment, part time employment and high position employment. The empirical results show that Professionals and higher position employees, public employees, formal employees, high wage employees and full time employees have higher likelihood to first or second birth. Generally, the results show that job characteristics are associated with fertility, in other world, work conditions influence the degree to which women face reconciliation between their family and career roles. Thus by providing of family-friendly employment conditions, fertility may tend to increase.