Education and childlessness

Abstract

In this paper we extend the concept of educational attainment to cover the field of education taken in addition to the conventional level of education attained. Our empirical investigation uses register records containing childbearing and educational histories of an entire cohort of women born in Sweden (about a quarter-million individuals). This allows us to operate with a high number of educational field-and-level combinations (some sixty in all). It turns out that the field of education serves as an indicator of a woman's potential reproductive behavior better than the mere level attained. We discover that in each field permanent childlessness increases some with the educational level, but that the field itself is the more important. In general, we find that women educated for jobs in teaching and health care are in a class of their own, with much lower permanent childlessness at each educational level than in any other major grouping. Women educated in arts and humanities or for religious occupations have unusually high fractions permanently childless.Our results cast doubt on the assumption that higher education per se must result in higher childlessness. In our opinion, several factors intrinsic and extrinsic to an educational system (such as its flexibility, its gender structure, and the manner in which education is hooked up to the labor market) may influence the relationship between education and childlessness, and we would not expect a simple, unidirectional relationship.

Educational differences in timing and quantum of childbearing in Britain

“…Educational attainment is a strong predictor of fertility and, particularly given the expansion of higher education among post-war cohorts, the mechanisms underlying this educational differential are of significant interest in contemporary demography (Rindfuss, Bumpass, and John 1980;Axinn and Barber 2001;Hoem, Neyer, and Andersson 2006;Testa 2012;Wood, Neels, and Kil 2014). Increased education has an impact on childbearing through enrolment and human capital effects.…”

Do imputed education histories provide satisfactory results in fertility analysis in the Western German context?

“…The Swedish educational system is similarly flexible, with a wide range of policies aimed at supporting students who reenter education at a later age. A very high proportion of students in Sweden resume education after already having gathered labor market experience, or take part-time courses while employed (Hoem, Neyer, and Andersson 2006). We suspect that it would be difficult to approximate education histories using only sparse information for countries such as Sweden, Great Britain, or the United States.…”

Fertility and the fast-track

“…It has recently been shown that educational orientation may be a more important determinant of fertility than level of education (Stanfors 2003;Lappegård and Rønsen 2005;Hoem et al 2006aHoem et al , 2006bMiranti et al 2009;Van Bavel 2010). To a high degree educational orientation matters through occupational choice since the two are closely related.…”