Abstract
The relationship between fertility and employment among women is a challenging topic that requires further exploration, especially for developing countries where the micro and macro evidence fails to paint a clear picture. This study analyzes the two-way relationship between women’s employment and fertility in Turkey using a hazard approach with piece-wise constant exponential modelling, using data from the 2008 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that makes use of an event history analysis to analyze this relationship within a developing country context. Specifically, a separate analysis is made of the association between the employment statuses of women in their first, second, third, and fourth and higher order conceptions, and the association of fertility and its various dimensions with entry and exit from employment. The findings suggest that a two-way negative association exists between fertility and employment among women in Turkey, with increasing intensities identified among some groups of women. Our findings also cast light on how contextual changes related to the of the roles of worker and mother have transformed the fertility-employment relationship in Turkey, in line with propositions of the role hypothesis. Final version published 2018 as Birth and employment transitions of women in Turkey: The emergence of role incompatibility in Demographic Research (https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol39/46/)
Highlights
The relationship between fertility and employment among women is a topic that requires further clarification, especially in developing countries where fertility is still in transition
Women working in the agricultural sector (3.64) have higher mean children ever born (CEB) than those employed in other sectors
5.2 Results of the multivariate analyses we present the results of dynamic analyses of the transitions during all life course spells under observation in five parts: (1) the relationship running from employment to fertility, (2) associations of other covariates with fertility, (3) the relationship running from fertility to employment exit and entry, (4) associations of other covariates with employment exit and entry, and (5) interactions between employment statuses and conceptions
Summary
The relationship between fertility and employment among women is a topic that requires further clarification, especially in developing countries where fertility is still in transition. There is an apparent shift from a negative relationship to a weakening negative or even a positive one at the macro level. The decreasing incompatibility of the roles of worker and mother resulting from changes in the societal response and institutional context goes some way to explaining this shift. Micro-level studies, due to their less descriptive and more instrumental character, are better able to explain the complex mechanisms that underlie women’s childbearing and employment decisions The relationship is generally negative; no clear pattern can be observed either in developed or in developing countries, mostly due to the lack of comparability of the context, definitions and methodology of the studies.
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