In the last panel we focused on trends in the TFR. Here the focus is on the relationship between fertility rates and women's participation in the workforce. The extent to which female participation in the workforce impacts the fertility rate is not clear. The likelihood that increasing female participation in the workforce does have an impact on fertility is not disputed. The undulating pattern of the TFR is not directly mirrored by the rate of female participation in the workforce. Women have been entering the workforce in steadily greater numbers throughout the 20th century while the TFR has varied greatly.
When looking at workforce participation rates, it is important to keep in mind that rates vary by age group. The line on the main chart shows a steady increase in the percentage of women in the labor market. The percentage of women with young children in the workforce (marked by squares on the chart) has also risen and in 1997 was higher than the rate of all women in the workforce. This is the result of age differences in work- force participation.
Female Participation in the Workplace by Age, 2000
Female workforce participation rates for the year 2000 are shown to the left. The highest rates are for women in the prime childbearing and child rearing years.
Our fertility rates, as we saw in the previous panel, are influenced by many factors the most prominent of which is the availability of reliable contraceptives. Another important factor is the number of alternative activities that women have to child- bearing and child rearing. A woman is very unlikely to decide to have or not have a baby based solely on whether or not she is working. However, she is likely to postpone child- bearing while she goes to college. Then, once she has invested time and money to obtain a college education, she may well try and work her way up to a desired job position before deciding to have a child. This postponing of childbearing leads to having fewer babies and thus a lower TFR. The later a woman starts bearing children, the fewer she is likely to have.
Articles offering advice on how best to balance work and family have grown to dominate women's magazines during the 1990s. The subject has also gained a lot of attention in the human resource departments of large organizations. Our society is in the midst of a transformation. The tasks associated with caregiving and child rearing, as well as maintaining social networks, is no longer handled primarily at the family level. Rather, it is being handled at a more institutional level. There is much debate about whether or not this is a good thing, about how it can be done most efficiently, and about how and whether government policies can or should be made to facilitate this transition. As we work these issues out, we continue to breed and raise children — just at a lower pace than in the past.
The next panel asks the question, just how much are we postponing childbearing?
Source: Fertility data are from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), "Vital Statistics of the United States, 1998," Volume I, Natality, updated from later issues of National Vital Statistics Reports and Monthly Vital Statistics Reports also published by NCHS. Workplace participation data are from the U.S. Department of Labor, "Boom in day care industry the result of many social changes," Monthly Labor Review, August 1995, page 7 and "Marital and Family Characteristics of the Labor Force," Current Population Survey, March 1997. Data were also used from a table published by Columbia University on their web site, "Mothers of Young Children in the Paid Workforce," available online at http://www.columbia.edu/itc/history/brinkley/3651/webresource/stats_mothers_workforce.htm. Data on Female participation in the workforce by age are from the U.S. Census Bureau, "Civilian Labor Force and Participation Rates with Projections: 1980 to 2008," Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2001, page 367.
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