Women's Employment and the Trend of Fertility and Population Growth in Iran

Fertility and population growth have been converted to an important concern in Iran. Suitable policy making in this area requires identifying the role of women particularly their employment. To do this, the demand theory is used as a backbone of theoretical analysis that demonstrates the ambiguity of the effect of women’s employment. Accordingly, the hypothesis is that employment of women has a negative effect on fertility and population growth in Iran. Testing hypothesis is based on regression analysis by using documented data of World Bank in period 1960-2014. Results suggest that female’s participation in labor force has negative effect on fertility but is not an impediment of population growth. This finding implies that however female’s employment decreases fertility but presumably precludes the descent of population growth by lowering the mortality rate. Additionally, share of women in nonagricultural wage occupations has positive impact on both of fertility and population. Therefore, women’s participation in such jobs does not confine family size.