Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T19:22:55.002Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender Equity and Fertility in Italy and Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2009

LYNN PRINCE COOKE
LYNN PRINCE COOKE*
Affiliation:
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NF email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Gender equity and its effects on fertility vary across socio-political contexts, particularly when comparing less with more developed economies. But do subtle differences in equity within more similar contexts matter as well? Here we compare Italy and Spain, two countries with low fertility levels and institutional reliance on kinship and family, but with employment equity among women during the 1990s slightly greater in Italy than Spain. The European Community Household Panel is used to explore the effect of this difference in gender equity on the likelihood of married couples having a second birth during this time period. Women's hours of employment reduce the birth likelihood in both countries, but non-maternal sources of care offset this effect to different degrees. In Spain, private childcare significantly increases birth likelihood, whereas in Italy, father's greater childcare share increases the likelihood, particularly among employed women. These results suggest that increases in women's employment equity increase not only the degree of equity within the home, but also the beneficial effects of equity on fertility. These equity effects help to offset the negative relationship historically found between female employment and fertility.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 123 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adsera, A. (2003), ‘Labor market performance and the timing of births: a comparative analysis across European countries’, University of Chicago Population Research Center Working Paper, http://www.src.uchicago.edu/prc/pdfs/adsera03.pdf.Google Scholar
Allen, S. M. and Hawkins, A. J. (1999), ‘Maternal gatekeeping: mothers’ beliefs and behaviors that inhibit greater father involvement in family work’, Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61: 199–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allison, P. D. (1984), Event History Analysis: Regression for Longitudinal Analysis (Sage University Paper series in Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences No. 07-046), Thousand Oaks: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbera, M. and Vettor, T. (2001), ‘The case of Italy’, in Behning, U. and Pascual, A. S. (eds.), Gender Mainstreaming in the European Employment Strategy, Brussels: European Trade Union Institute.Google Scholar
Becker, G. S. (1981), A Treatise on the Family, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Becker, G. S. (1985), ‘Human capital, effort, and the sexual division of labor’, Journal of Labor Economics, 3: 2, S33–S58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernardi, F. and Nazio, T. (2005), ‘Globalization and the transition to adulthood in Italy’, in Blossfeld, H.-P., Mills, M., Klijzing, E. and Kurz, K. (eds.), Globalization, Uncertainty and Youth in Society, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bettio, F. and Villa, P. (1998), ‘A Mediterranean perspective on the breakdown of the relationship between participation and fertility’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 22: 137–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blood, R. O. and Wolfe, D. M. (1960), Husbands and Wives, New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Breen, R. and Cooke, L. P. (2005), ‘The persistence of the gendered division of domestic labour’, European Sociological Review, 21: 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewster, K. L. and Rindfuss, R. R. (2000), ‘Fertility and women's employment in industrialized nations’, Annual Review of Sociology, 26: 271–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caprile, M. and Escobedo, A. (2003), ‘Overcoming barriers to equal pay in Spain: monitoring gender mainstreaming’, in Magnusson, L., Mosesdottir, L. and Pascual, A. S. (eds.), Equal Pay and Gender Mainstreaming in the European Employment Strategy, Brussels: European Trade Union Institute.Google Scholar
Cooke, L. P. (2004), ‘The gendered division of labor and family outcomes in Germany’, Journal of Marriage and Family, 66: 1243–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, L. P. (2007a), ‘Policy pathways to gender power: state-level effects on the division of housework’, Journal of Social Policy, 36: 239–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, L. P. (2007b), ‘Persistent policy effects on gender equity in the home: the division of domestic tasks in reunified Germany’, Journal of Marriage and Family, 69: 930–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, L. (2003), ‘Do Australians share parenting? Time-diary evidence on fathers' and mothers’ time with children’, Presented at the 8th Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, Melbourne, 12–14 February.Google Scholar
de la Rica, S. and Iza, A. (2003), ‘Career planning in Spain: do temporary contracts delay marriage and motherhood?’, WP 2003-08 DFAEII, Universidad del Pais Vasco (Spain), http://www.ehu.es/SaradelRica/docs/reho.pdf.Google Scholar
Escobedo, A. (2001), ‘The case of Spain’, in Behning, U. and Pascual, A. S. (eds.), Gender Mainstreaming in the European Employment Strategy, Brussels: European Trade Union Institute.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990), The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999), Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Commission (1998), Care in Europe: Joint Report of the ‘Gender and Employment’ and ‘Gender Law’ Group of Experts, Brussels: European Commission.Google Scholar
Ferrera, M. (2005), Welfare State Reform in Southern Europe, London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franco, A. and Winqvist, K. (2002), ‘Women and men reconciling work and family life’, EUROSTAT Population and Social Conditions, Theme 3-9/2002.Google Scholar
Fraser, N. (1997), Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the ‘Post-socialist’ Condition, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gershuny, J. (2000), Changing Times: Work and Leisure in Postindustrial Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaumotte, F. (2003), ‘Female labour force participation: past trends and main determinants in OECD countries’, Economics Working Paper ECO/WKP 30, OECD, Paris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurado Guerrero, T. and Naldini, M. (1996), ‘Is the South so different? Italian and Spanish families in comparative perspective’, Southern European Society and Politics, 1: 42–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohler, H. P., Billari, F. and Ortega, J. A. (2002), ‘The emergence of lowest-low fertility in Europe during the 1990s’, Population and Development Review, 28: 641–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
León, M. (2007), ‘Speeding up or holding back? Institutional factors in the development of childcare provision in Spain’, European Societies, 9: 315–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, J. (1992), ‘Gender and the development of welfare regimes’, Journal of European Social Policy, 3: 159–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, P. (2000), ‘Gender equity, social institutions and the future of fertility’, Journal of Population Research, 17: 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, R. A. (2000), ‘Female wages, male wages, and the economic model of marriage’, in Waite, L. J. (ed.), The Ties that Bind: Perspectives on Marriage and Cohabitation, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Nash, M. (1991), ‘Pronatalism and motherhood in Franco's Spain’, in Bock, G. and Thane, P. (eds.), Maternity and Gender Policies: Women and the Rise of the European Welfare States 1880s–1950s, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Noguera, C. S., Martin, T. C. and Bonmati, A. S. (2005), ‘The Spanish case: the effects of the globalization process on the transition to adulthood’, in Blossfeld, H.-P., Mills, M., Klijzing, E. and Kurz, K. (eds.), Globalization, Uncertainty and Youth in Society, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
OECD (2001), Employment Outlook, Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
OECD (2002), Employment Outlook, Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
OECD (2004), Education at a Glance, Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
OECD (2007), Statistical Database, accessed 5 February 2008 at http://stats.oecd.org/wbos/Default.aspx?usercontext=sourceoecd.Google Scholar
Oláh, L. (2003), ‘Gendering fertility: second births in Sweden and Hungary’, Population Research and Policy Review, 22: 171–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oppenheimer, V. K. (1997), ‘Women's employment and the gain to marriage: the specialization and trading model’, Annual Review of Sociology, 23: 431–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pierson, C. (1998), Beyond the Welfare State? The New Political Economy of Welfare, second edition, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Saraceno, C. (1994), ‘The ambivalent familism of the Italian welfare state’, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, 1: 60–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saraceno, C. (2003), ‘La conciliazione di responsabilità familiari e attività lavorative in Italia: Paradossi ed equilibri imperfetti’ (Conciliating work and family responsibilities: paradoxes and imperfect balances), Polis, 17: 2, 199–228.Google Scholar
Sayer, L. (2005), ‘Gender, time and inequality: trends in women's and men's paid work, unpaid work and free time’, Social Forces, 84: 285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sleebos, J. (2003), ‘Low fertility rates in OECD Countries: facts and policy responses’, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 13, Paris, France.Google Scholar
Stier, H. and Lewin-Epstein, N. (2007), ‘Policy effects on the division of housework’, Journal of Comparative Analysis: Research and Practice, 9: 235–59.Google Scholar
Sweeney, M. M. (2002), ‘Two decades of family change: the shifting economic foundations of marriage’, American Sociological Review 67: 132–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2004), New Risks, New Welfare: The Transformation of the European Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tobio, C. (2001), ‘Working and mothering: women's strategies in Spain’, European Societies, 3: 339–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torr, B. M. and Short, S. E. (2004), ‘Second births and the second shift: a research note on gender equity and fertility’, Population and Development Review, 30: 109–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WHOSIS (2002), Core Health Indicators, World Health Organization Statistics, http://www3.who.int/whosis/country/compare.Google Scholar