Open AccessFemale Employment and Fertility: Further Investigation of an Ambivalent Association
Author(s) -
Zeba A. Sathar,
Shahnaz Kazi
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v28i3pp.175-194
Subject(s) - fertility , demography , child bearing , ambivalence , total fertility rate , marital status , psychology , demographic economics , family planning , economics , population , sociology , social psychology , research methodology
This study of the relationship between female employment andfertility is based on a survey of 1000 ever-married women in Karachi. Adistinct pattern of differentials in actual performance and in desiredfertility is observed across working and non-working women. Workingwomen are not a homogeneous group, and the differences across six broadoccupational groups of working women are more marked than those betweenworking and non-working women. Women in higher status occupations marrymuch later than and have half the completed family size of - those womenworking in lower status occupations. The fertility of non-working womenlies somewhere in between these two groups. Some reasons for thefertility differentials found are identified in variations in point ofentry into the labour force relative to the stage in child-bearing, inexpectations from sons in old age support, and in relative facility inseeking means of fertility control. Working women in higher statusoccupations also have better chances of their children surviving,whereas women in lower status occupations suffer a greater toll of childdeaths.