Women’s Employment, Non-Parental Childcare, and Fertility Decisions in East Asia: A Qualitative Analysis

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Abstract

The incompatibility between women’s employment and childrearing is a central theme in the large literature on post-industrial low fertility. Social demographers have found that in moderately low fertility contexts (such as Sweden and the US), highly educated women increasingly engage in simultaneous employment and childrearing. In contrast, their counterparts in lowest-low fertility contexts (such as Italy, Japan, and South Korea) face a starker choice between the two. In many East Asian societies (such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore) however, many highly educated women can achieve continuous employment and childrearing due to the prevalence of kinship and market-based childcare solutions. A lingering puzzle, therefore, is why fertility is persistently at the lowest levels globally in these contexts.

This paper draws on data from 70 in-depth interviews to examine the role of non-parental childcare solutions in the fertility decision-making of highly educated partnered adults in two urban East Asian contexts: Beijing (where kinship-based care is more common) and Hong Kong (whereas market-based care is more common).

Rather than being perceived as an optional or discretionary form of support, non-parental care is viewed as an essential yet imperfect precondition to having children. However, two main factors constrain their positive influence. First, reliance on non-parental childcare conflicts with intensive parenting ideals emphasising the parent-child bond. For this reason, a conceptual boundary between children's basic needs (such as safety and nourishment) and higher-order needs (such as emotional, academic, and moral development) relegates non-parental care contributions strictly to the former and still leaves many aspects of care to be undertaken by parents. Second, while the flexible nature of non-parental care is a benefit, the predominantly live-in nature of these arrangements often generates pressures and conflicts. Due to these limitations and drawbacks, a form of ‘modified male-breadwinner’ household, whereby non-parental care is relied upon only on a temporary or occasional basis, is perceived as ideal despite being financially difficult to achieve.

Author

• Alicia M. Barry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong