The Degree of Reproduction: Education, Jobs and Gender

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6: Families and Class Reproduction

Abstract

Research on family formation and fertility often identifies increased access to education for women as a driver of decreasing fertility. While this is true at the macro-level, this relationship does not hold across all contexts. Further, little has been done to examine whether this relationship varies by U.S. state context. Utah is a particularly interesting case study, insofar as it has historically been demographically homogenous, with high fertility and high levels of education. As such, we leverage the highly detailed Utah Population Database to examine historical fertility in Utah as a function of 1) wife’s education, 2) husband’s occupation and 3) their interaction. Using negative binomial regressions, we examine different outcomes in three sequential models: 1) wife’s education as a function of husband’s occupation, 2) age at first birth as a function of wife’s education, husband’s occupation and their interaction, and 3) total children ever born as a function of wife’s education, husband’s occupation and their interaction. This study adds to our historical understanding of family formation and fertility by highlighting the joint implications of husband’s occupation and wives’ education, and by examining whether prior trends hold in a high-fertility, high-education context.

Authors

• Grace Venechuk, University of Chicago

• Jason Paul Bonham, University of Chicago