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Subjective utility and plans for childbearing and employment

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Abstract

Nonrecursive models of plans for childbearing and employment were estimated for a sample of white married women, age 26 to 36, with one or two young children. Women's concerns about care of children already born did inhibit their employment plans. Further, plans to have another child in the near future had a direct negative effect on full-time employment plans among women with one child, but not among women with two children. No direct effects of childbearing plans on part-time employment plans were found. In contrast to earlier research on longterm childbearing and employment plans, no direct effects of employment plans on plans for childbearing were found. It is suggested that attainment of the two-child family marks a turning point in the relation between childbearing and wives' employment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, USA

    Elizabeth Thomson

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  1. Elizabeth Thomson
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This research was partially supported by grants from the Center for Population Research, NICHD to Battelle Human Affairs Research Centers, Seattle, Washington (1-R01-HD10683), and to the Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison (1-R01-HD05876). I wish to thank Andrew R. Davidson for the opportunity to conduct the research. I am also grateful to Pamela Oliver, Larry Bumpass, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this article.

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Thomson, E. Subjective utility and plans for childbearing and employment. Popul Environ 7, 198–208 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01255489

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