Abstract

PIP:

The Korean Family Life Cycle Survey data on women's employment are used to explore variations in women's employment patterns and the relationship between women's employment and fertility. In general, employment rates increase with women's age. Women in rural areas are more likely to work than those in urban areas. These patterns are clearly linked to different work opportunity structures. As a rule, the most educated and the least educated are more likely to work, whereas respondents in the middle educational categories were least likely. It has already been recognized that the employment period during the life course may be related to fertility in various ways. 1 is delay of marriage among women who work before they marry. The relatively better financial situation of unmarried working women contributes to the desire to extend single life compared with non-working women. In addition, particular types of work may provide exposure to ideas and norms that discourage early marriage. It may also be true that single working women who contribute to household income have some influence on women's decision to postpone marriage. The results show that women who work before marriage marry somewhat later than women who never work before marriage. For example, women who were in professional and clerical occupations married about 3 years later than women who had not worked before marriage. Among women who had been employed before marriage, age at marriage differed according to different occupations. For example, women with working experience in professional and clerical occupations had the highest mean age at marriage. An analysis of the relationship between women's employment and fertility shows that women in professional and clerical work bear somewhat fewer children on average than women with no recorded economic activity. In domestic household employee and agricultural work, however, no such relationship is observed. The relationship between occupation and fertility is strongly linked to the level of socioeconomic development. While a strong and consistent negative relationship was observed between professional occupations and fertility in the more urbanized areas, that was not the case among the poorer rural areas. In contrast, women with agricultural jobs generally show remarkably similar fertility patterns to women with no recorded economic activity. The measured work-fertility relationship may be partially explained through the influence of fertility experience on subsequent work patterns.author's modified

author's modified