The Effect of Employed Women's Working Hours on Fertility

Women’s working hours is known as an important factor on childbearing. The question this paper tries to address is “whether the available part-time working schedule in Isfahan has any impact on fertility to better understand women’s behavior regarding fertility and their situation in the labor market?” The paper examines differences in fertility in terms of employed women’s working hours, trying to understand if part-time job is a good way to reconcile work and maternity. The effects of working hours on fertility is measured through probability (parity progression ratios) of first and second birth, mean of closed birth intervals at first and second birth, and the cumulative fertility rate (CFR). However, the real impact of these measures on fertility is yet to be examined empirically.
Some theoretical considerations regarding the relationship between employed women’s working hours and fertility are used, including McDonald gender equality theory, role theory, Becker microeconomic theory and the risk aversion theory.
The data are derived from a retrospective survey using a questionnaire, which included histories of childbearing and employment of 552 married women aged 20-40, in the year of 2014 in Isfahan. The dependent variable is fertility, the explanatory variable is work hours, while other socio-economic variables including job's position, type of career relationship, sector, wages/salaries and job experience in the model are all controlled.
Research method is based on discrete-time survival models (the complementary log-log model), that are used to construct multivariate life tables of parity progression. A woman’s parity is defined as the number of children that she has ever borne. Parity transitions are transition from woman’s own marriage to her first birth (0-1), transition from first to second birth (1-2), and so on. The basic dimensions of these life tables are age and parity. By multivariate it is meant that a life table can be constructed by values or categories of one socioeconomic predictor while holding the other socioeconomic variables constant. These multivariate life tables yield various measures of fertility. Parity progression ratios (PPRs) and the total fertility rate (TFR) and mean closed birth intervals are measures of fertility (Retherford et al, 2010).
Discussion of Results and The results of the calculation of the cumulative fertility showed that part-time employed women had more children than full-time employed women (for part-time = 0/98 and for full time = 1/06), and when fertility behavior was examined by parity by looking at the transition to first births and then to the second, results showed that part-time work among women would be associated with lower likelihood to first transition (probability for full time= 0/76 and probability for part-time = 0/72) and higher likelihood to second birth in the case of women who already have one child (probability for full time= 0/29 and probability for part-time = 0/48). This was due to the fact that these women are more likely to have already experienced time scarcity in full-time employment due to their family responsibilities. Women who do not have children are expected to be more concerned about establishing themselves in the labor market and building a career. Mean age at first and second birth in part–time employment is shorter than full-time employment. In other words, mean age at first birth for part–time employment is 4/92 year and for full-time employment is 5/21 year and mean age at second birth for part–time employment is 4/1 year and for full-time employment is 5/26 year. So by increasing part-time jobs and as a result, lower levels of job strain in women, fertility may tend to increase.
The lesson to be learned from this study is that if policy makers want to implement adequate part-time schedules so as to enhance fertility, they should look at the part-time schedule available in other countries, because it clearly enhances fertility for women who decide to make use of this flexibility measure.