Women's Economic Opportunities and Childbearing within Marriage in Italy, Spain, and Japan

Kei Nomaguchi, University of Calgary

This study examines the relationship between women's economic opportunities and childbearing in three industrialized countries where gender relations remain less egalitarian: Italy, Spain, and Japan. Using data from the 1995-96 Fertility and Family Surveys and the 1998 National Family Research, I examine cohort differences in the pace of childbearing within marriage among women who were born between 1945 and 1964. I ask three questions: 1) in each country, did women in younger cohorts make slower transitions to first births and second births within marriage compared with those in earlier cohorts?; 2) is the delay in childbearing within marriage in younger cohorts associated with increases in women's levels of education and labor force participation, after controlling for increases in age at marriage?; 3) do three countries show similar patterns in the relationship between the delay in childbearing within marriage and increases in women's levels of education and employment?