Does Insecure Work Delay or Encourage Family Formation? Socioeconomic and Labor Market Contingencies

• In Event: 1546 - The Gendered Life Course: Life Course Studies of Women's Lives

Abstract

Economic theory on fertility decisions suggests that job insecure women should be more likely to delay parenthood until they find more stable employment. While some empirical research supports this possibility, other studies reveal evidence of a more nuanced relationship between insecure work and women’s transitions into parenthood—one in which women’s social location may play an important role in shaping their reactions to job insecurity. In this paper, we investigate this possibility with respect to fertility decisions among particular subgroups of job insecure women. As part of this, we draw from social psychological theories of social comparison and uncertainty reduction to investigate socioeconomic and local labor market contingencies in women’s fertility responses to job insecurity. Using Canadian panel data (Canadian Work, Stress and Health Study) event history analyses reveal that perceived insecurity does not initially appear to impact fertility decisions, until we consider the conditional effects of education and local unemployment conditions. Job insecure women with at least a college degree are less likely to report a first child compared to their secure counterparts. No difference is observed amongst those with less than a college degree, however. Insecurity also decreases the likelihood of having a first child most predominantly for women in labor market regions with low unemployment. Insecure and secure women in high unemployment regions have similar odds of reporting a first child.

Authors

• Paul Glavin, McMaster University

• Marisa Christine Young, McMaster University

• Scott Schieman, University of Toronto