No More Babies without Help for Whom? Education, Division of Labor, and Fertility Intentions

Abstract

Objective This study examines whether the impact of husbands' involvement in childcare and housework on wives' fertility intentions varies by wives' education in Taiwan. Background Recent research has pointed to the positive influence of a more egalitarian division of labor on wives' fertility intentions, yet existing literature often fails to examine educational variations in such linkages. Method This paper analyzed reports of time spent on domestic work (i.e., housework and childcare) for both spouses in the 2016 Women's Marriage, Fertility, and Employment Survey. The analytical sample included all married respondents with at least one child. Regression models and counterfactual analyses were adopted. Results The findings showed that husbands of tertiary‐educated wives shared more housework and childcare. Furthermore, wives' fertility intentions beyond parity‐one increased with more input from husbands in helping with childcare, but not housework sharing. This positive childcare‐sharing effect was particularly salient among tertiary‐educated wives—who tended to be more economically empowered and to have higher expectations for gender equality at home. Finally, counterfactual analyses using a propensity score matching method indicated that non‐tertiary‐educated wives would not increase their fertility intentions even if they had received more help from husbands. Conclusion Such educational variations have been little explored in past theory and research. Pro‐natalist policies aiming to boost fertility will likely attain optimal effectiveness if different combinations of parental‐leave and financial aid packages are offered to women with varying education. This study also contributes to the limited research on how division of labor affects fertility intentions in East Asia.

Educational attainment and housework participation among Japanese, Taiwanese, and American women across adult life transitions

“…Previous research on gender equality and housework in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States Despite women's growing educational attainment and some legal progress in protecting women's rights in the three countries' labour markets, women still do most housework in Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. (Inaba, 1998;Ishii-Kuntz, 2009;Matsuda, 2001;Nishioka & Yamauchi, 2017;Tsuya, 2000;Tsuya et al, 2005). In each of these three countries, women's disproportionate share of housework is especially pronounced among couples with young children (Bianchi et al, 2012;Cheng & Hsu, 2020;Irani & Vemireddy, 2021;Nakamura & Akiyoshi, 2015), which may be alleviated to an extent by assistance from women in their extended families (Hu & Kamo, 2007;Kang & Cohen, 2018;Takahashi et al, 2013). Nevertheless, in East Asia, the division of labour still adheres to the traditional model featuring male-breadwinner and female-homemaker households (Slote & De Vos, 1998); Japanese and Taiwanese men occupy the public sphere and participate in the market economy, and their cultures still pressure most married women to stay at home and to perform the majority of housework and childcare (Borovoy, 2005;Chen & Yi, 2005;Kato et al, 2018;Shirahase, 2007).…”

The Association Between Conditional Cash Transfer and Fertility Intention in Indonesia

“…This finding is also in line with the research from (Heiland, Prskawetz, & Sanderson, 2008), which showed that more educated German women have a higher tendency to have children they have a higher level of self-confidence, the ability to cope with stress and pressure from the family and the ability to carry out the role of mother. The other mechanism is because women with higher education are more likely to have husbands who are highly educated (Testa, 2014) who support gender equality in the home, such as contributing to help with housework and child care, to encourage the desire to have more children (Cheng & Hsu, 2020;Mills, Mencarini, Tanturri, & Begall, 2008).…”

Work and fertility in Taiwan: how do women’s and men’s career sequences associate with fertility outcomes?

“…Taiwan, together with Japan and South Korea in East Asia, is usually ranked among the countries with the most inadequate conditions for combining work with family (Jones, 2007;McDonald, 2009;Frejka et al, 2010;Gauthier, 2016). This is especially true for Taiwanese women because childcare and housework tasks are conventionally considered as mothers' responsibilities (Cheng, 2020;Cheng and Hsu, 2020). Moreover, work-family reconciliation is weakly supported by public policies (Tsai, 2012;Gauthier, 2016).…”