Showing papers on "Negative relationship published in 1974"

The Employment of Women, Education, and Fertility.

Abstract: Until recently the employment of women was tolerated, viewed as acceptable under certain conditions, but generally considered to be undesirable from the standpoint of the family and society. Con cern with overpopulation, however, has changed this view and en couraging the employment of women has become one of the common, and certainly one of the more humane, approaches to bringing about a decreased birth rate. Basically the idea is that if women are em ployed they will have satisfactions such that their enthusiasm for motherhood will be decreased: they will want fewer children and their motivation to practice effective birth control will be increased. This argument is bolstered by statistics indicating that in the United States, as in most highly industrialized countries, working women have fewer children than nonworking women. Furthermore, there are data to in dicate that females who plan to work plan also to have smaller families (Blake, 1965; Collver & Langlois, 1962; Collver, 1968; Far ley, 1970; Hoffman & Hoffman, 1973; Weiler, 1971). The negative relationship between maternal employment and family size, however, does not hold under all conditions. The relation ship has not been established in the lesser developed countries, nor where extended family ties are particularly strong (Gendell, 1965; Stycos & Weiler, 1967; Safilios-Rothschild, 1969; Zarate, 1967). Furthermore, there is some evidence that it is not as firmly established for certain occupations—particularly those in the blue collar category (Weiler, 1971). Thus it seems clear that the nature of the employ ment-fertility relationship must be more fully understood before it can be translated into an effective population policy. In fact, without understanding the dynamics of the relationship, it is not possible to predict whether or not the negative association now found in the United States will continue to exist as other aspects of the social environment change. As a first step, let us consider the trends in