Women’s work and family size in rural thailand

Abstract

Surveys of 612 couples in 2 districts of rural Thailand were conducted to analyze the extent to which the birth of each child and the cumulative effect of childbearing interrupts, interferes with, or influences women's economic activity. The districts were in a northern area, Lamphun, where fertility has declined rapidly since the 1960s, and central Suphanburi province where the decline has been slower. Couples were selected for having completed families or 1 or 2 children, or 4 or more surviving children, and were matched for age. Information was obtained by survey questionnaires and by focus groups. Small family couples were somewhat better educated and of higher socioeconomic status, and tended to be farmers, while large family couples were more likely to engage in wage labor. These couples viewed women's labor as an economic necessity, either for survival or to educate and provide for their families. To cope with child care, women resorted to relatives, older children, hired child care, nursery school, primary school, took their children with them to work or modified their work schedule. The double burden of income-earning activity and child care caused considerable strains for working mothers. There was an overwhelming consensus among both groups that childbearing interrupts and that child care interferes with women's work. 95% of the small and 90% of the large families felt that more work could be done if families were kept small. Implications of this study are that government sponsored family planned should continue, and that some type of subsidized day care is needed, including early morning hours when farm women leave for work.