Time of One’s Own

Abstract

Recent theoretical work suggests that the increase in women’s sense of entitlement to leisure has become a key to understanding delay in childbearing in industrialized countries. Using data from the Japanese Panel Study of Consumer Life, the author examines the relationship between leisure time and childbearing among Japanese married women in a recent cohort who delayed childbearing beyond age 25. Results suggest that employment is a strong predictor of nonchildbearing. Controlling for work hours and other sociodemographic variables, married women who spend more leisure time are less likely than their counterparts who spend less leisure time to become a mother 2 years later. Among those who are employed, leisure time, but neither work hours nor occupation, is related to nonchildbearing. These results indicate that Japanese married women who have greater interests in leisure postpone childbearing. Many of them participate in the labor force perhaps because of the leisure opportunities employment provides.