Employment, Gender Norms and Fertility: A Couple Approach

Giovanni Minchio , University of Trento
Stefani Scherer, University of Trento
Agnese Vitali, University of Trento

This study aims to investigate how couples' employment and relative income arrangements are associated with fertility, while also considering the potential moderating role of gender norms. Employment instability and childbearing showed a negative relationship, yet heterogeneous across institutional contexts and genders. While women’s employment status have become increasingly critical for household well-being, women still face economic penalties in a dual-earner arrangements and when they are only source of family income, increasing their economic vulnerability. Moreover, sole-earner couples face higher economic uncertainty with respect to dual-earner couples. Then, we are interested in studying this dynamic at the couple's level and introducing a longitudinal perspective. We also study whether this relationship might vary by combinations of partners’ education, given the importance of accounting for social stratification when inquiring employment and fertility. Moreover, we study if gender norms might moderate the relationship, given its association with both employment arrangements and fertility. We draw our data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions longitudinal microdata, and the European Social Survey. Our analysis is based on a subsample of cohabiting couples with women aged 20-45 years from 27 European countries. Preliminary results suggest that sole-earner couples and unemployed couples are less likely to become parents compared to dual-earner couples, and employed couples, respectively. While full female-breadwinner couples have lower odds of transitioning to a second child compared to both dual-earner and full male-breadwinner couples. Additionally, we expect educational level and gender norms to have a significant impact on this relationship.

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 Presented in Session 108. Fertility and Gender Equity