Fertility and the fast-track

Abstract

BACKGROUNDDuring recent decades women have made considerable advances in education and the labor market, even in fast-track professions such as law, medicine, and academia. While women have entered high-status professions, the career paths of some jobs have changed little and are still inflexible, which implies that professional gains may be offset by familial losses. OBJECTIVEWe investigate continued childbearing, focusing on the relationship between occupation and second and third births, among highly educated men and women in three highstatus professions. METHODSWe analyze the determinants of having a second or a third birth using longitudinal data from population registers in Sweden, 1991Sweden, -2009. We use descriptive statistics and logistic models. RESULTSNet of demographic and socioeconomic controls, medical doctors are more likely to continue childbearing than lawyers and academics, irrespective of parity and gender. The patterns that emerge are independent of income. Public sector work is conducive to continued childbearing, especially for women. CONCLUSIONAlthough there are more opportunities to combine career and family in Sweden than in many other countries, this does not hold equally for all. The results indicate that working conditions and career structures contribute to making it easier for some groups than others to combine a professional career and children. Patterns that emerge reflect that women and men are not equally sensitive to career structures that imply a tradeoff

Wealth, fertility and adaptive behaviour in industrial populations

“…We were as inclusive as possible in our selection process: the only stringently applied criterion was that the study should contain a longitudinal analysis that dealt with the effect of wealth on subsequent ( proxies of ) fertility. Even so, this produced a sample of only 13 (5%) articles with relevant longitudinal measures ( [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]; see the electronic supplementary material for a description of these 13 studies and further description of the methods used).…”

“…When both female labour market participation and childrearing are facilitated through societal and institutional factors, parenthood is chosen more frequently (see also [10,[75][76][77][78]). The Swedish studies [62,67,70,72], for example, emphasize how governmental policies work to increase the compatibility of childrearing and paid labour for women. Beginning in the early 1990s, generous parental leave was introduced, with benefits based on previous earnings.…”

“…The Swedish studies [62,67,70,72], for example, emphasize how governmental policies work to increase the compatibility of childrearing and paid labour for women. Beginning in the early 1990s, generous parental leave was introduced, with benefits based on previous earnings.…”

The Reproductive Ecology of Industrial Societies, Part II

“…This reverse causality, where women pay a substantial monetary cost for giving birth (sometimes referred to as the “motherhood wage gap”), is pronounced in the United States, where paid maternity leave is rare and considered a luxury (Scott and Stanfors 2011). In Sweden, for instance, maternity and paternity leave are generous, and the amount of governmental pay mothers receive during maternity leave is strongly determined by their income; it is not surprising, therefore, to see that income positively predicts motherhood in this population (Dribe and Stanfors 2010; Scott and Stanfors 2011; Stanfors 2014). This indicates that fertility decisions should be considered within the institutional context of the particular population under study, and that we shouldn’t regard industrial societies as homogenous.…”