Stratifying Reproduction

Abstract

The study focuses on the educational and ethnic differences in women's reproductive decisions concerning the birth of a second child in postsocialist Bulgaria. Event history modeling technique is applied in the analysis. The data come from the first wave of the Gender and Generation Surveys conducted in 2004. In the analysis, woman and partner's education as well as woman's ethnicity are considered multiple correlates of social status and woman's positioning in the social structure. The results reveal a peculiar trend of enlarging stratification in the progression rates of second births in the country after 1990. Particularly in recent years, highly educated women are more likely to postpone and even forgo a second child than their less-educated counterparts. The strengthening negative education gradient is explained by the increasing direct and opportunity costs that an extra birth brings to women. The analysis also reveals that the effect of women's education remains strong and significant even after controlling for her partner's education. The strong direct effect of woman's education is explained by the prevailing dual-earner model in Bulgaria. The study uncovers the continuing ethnic divide, which further stratifies higher-order fertility in postsocialist Bulgaria. Roma women continue to have significantly higher reproductive propensity than Bulgarian and Turkish women.