Women’s Wages and Fertility Revisited Evidence from Norway

The prediction of New Home Economics of a negative effect of female wages on fertility has been tested in a number of studies, but the results are far from unanimous. This article contributes with new evidence based on registry data covering all Norwegian women born in 1955–1974 and a simultaneous hazard model of transitions to first, second and third birth. We find a U-shaped relationship between wages and the log hazard for all cohorts, however, varying in strength and across parity. In transitions to first birth, most women are likely to be on the downward slope of the curve, implying that the wage effect is mainly negative. In transitions to second and third birth, most women are likely to be on the upward slope of the curve, where the wage effect is positive. The results are not very sensitive to the omission of education and income of the spouse.     

Like Mother(-in-Law) Like Daughter? Influence of the Older Generation’s Fertility Behaviours on Women’s Desired Family Size in Bihar,India

This paper investigates the associations between preferred family size of women in rural Bihar, India and the fertility behaviours of their mother and mother-in-law. Scheduled interviews of 440 pairs of married women aged 16–34 years and their mothers-in-law were conducted in 2011. Preferred family size is first measured by Coombs scale, allowing us to capture latent desired number of children and then categorized into three categories (low, medium and high). Women’s preferred family size is estimated using ordered logistic regression. We find that the family size preferences are not associated with mother’s fertility but with mother’s education. Mother-in-law’s desired number of grandchildren is positively associated with women’s preferred family size. However, when the woman has higher education than her mother-in-law, her preferred family size gets smaller, suggesting that education provides women with greater autonomy in their decision-making on childbearing.     

Are Individuals’ Desired Family Sizes Stable? Evidence from West German Panel Data

Using West German panel data constructed from the 1988 and 1994/1995 wave of the DJI Familiensurvey, we analyze the stability and determinants of individuals’ total desired fertility. We find considerable variation of total desired fertility across respondents and across interviews. In particular, up to 50% of individuals report a different total desired fertility across survey waves. Multivariate analysis confirms the importance of background factors including growing up with both parents, having more siblings, and being Catholic for preference formation. Consistent with the idea that life course experiences provide new information regarding the expected costs and benefits of different family sizes, the influence of background factors on total desired fertility is strong early in life and weakens as subsequent life course experiences, including childbearing, take effect. Accounting for unobserved individual heterogeneity, we estimate that an additional child may increase the total desired fertility of women with children by 0.14 children, less than what conventional estimates from cross-sectional data would have suggested.     

“I Can Provide for My Children”: Korean Immigrant Women’s Changing Perspectives on Work Outside the Home

Whether immigrant women’s introduction to paid labor empowers them with greater autonomy or exacerbates their oppression has been debated variously in the scholarship on gender and migration. In this paper, the author examines Korean immigrant women’s perspectives on work outside the home after migration. Based on in-depth interview data, the paper emphasizes Korean women’s own interpretations of work and motherhood, and highlights the ways in which they define and redefine work in relation to other aspects of their post-migration experiences. The analysis finds that income producing work is not empowering in and of itself, but contingent upon other post-migration challenges such as economic downward mobility and women’s changed roles as working mothers. Furthermore, women’s perception of work fluctuates over time. The findings suggest that paid work should not be simply interpreted as an empowering change, but the linkage between work and other aspects of immigrant women’s post-migration realities needs to be more closely examined.

Is This a Man’s World? Woman in the Farm Family of Thessaly,Greece from the 1950s Onwards

This study, drawing data from 891 women’s autobiographical memories, investigates the changes of woman’s position within the farm family in Thessaly (Greece), during a period of deep sociopolitical and agrarian transformations in the country (1950–2013). The results indicate that at one end of the spectrum woman’s status within the family significantly improved over the period under consideration, while, at the other end, full gender equality remains questionable. Although pervasive patriarchal values of farm family delayed the evolution of her familial position, woman gained a better status after 1980, a progress that, according to analysis, could be viewed as a corollary of both agricultural modernization and the influx of new members and new ideas in the Thessalian rural society. The findings confirm that the improvement of women farmers’ status within family—and society—is a lengthy and difficult process which is hampered by the commitment of farming communities to traditional male-privileged morals and ethics.