This research examines the macro-level relationship between female labor force participation rates and fertility rates across temporal and national contexts that differ in the public policies aimed at easing the conflict between work and family. Hypotheses that will be tested include (s) as the institutional supports for women's roles outside the family rise over time, the negative influence of female participation on rates on fertility declines and perhaps even reverses; (2) nations with women-friendly public policies will exhibit a weaker relationship and experience the over time reversal in direction more quickly and strongly than nations without such policies, and 3) the consequences of female wages relative income, and post-materialists values for the relationship between female work and fertility will likewise vary across time and nations. Data on fertility, female labor force participation, and a variety of control variables will be analyzed from 21 high-income nations from 1949-1996. These data will supplement the figures published in standard sources with data from comparable micro-level surveys that measure employment of women by age, marital status, and the presence of children at home. Using statistical techniques for pooled cross-sectional and time-serial data and for multi-level data that take fertility rates as the dependent variables, the analyses will examine the curvilinear effects of female work and the interaction of female work and women-friendly policies (without and with controls for other determinants such as female wages, relative income, and value change). The results will evaluate claims for the contextual influences on the female work and fertility relationship, and the divergence in fertility patterns and determinants during the later stages of the second demographic transitions.
In terms of practical implications, the project's description and comparison of national policies for support of working women relates to political concerns over the difficulties of combining work and family, the negative consequences of these difficulties for the lives of children and mothers, and the potential problems brought on by below-replacement fertility. The study of other nations with different policies and relationships between work and fertility can address these concerns, and contribute to policy debates in the United States.
