Birth and employment transitions of women in Turkey: The emergence of role incompatibility

Abstract

BACKGROUND The available evidence on the relationship between fertility and employment among women in developing countries paints an ambiguous picture. In Turkey there have been considerable structural changes since the 1960s, related to the incompatibility between women's roles as mother and worker. OBJECTIVE This study analyzes the two-way relationship between employment and fertility in Turkey over a 35-year period, including the correlates of the risks of first, second, third, and fourth and higher-order conceptions, and of the transitions from non-employment to employment and from employment to non-employment. METHODS The study adopts piecewise constant exponential event history modeling using data from the 2008 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey, mainly its event history data on ever-married women. RESULTS There is a two-way negative association between fertility and employment among women in Turkey. The characteristics of jobs that favor compatibility between worker and mother roles increase the risk of conception. Exiting employment is temporarily increased by fertility, due either to pregnancy or having an infant. Fertility in all its dimensions decreases the risk of entry into employment.

Career or Flexible Work Arrangements? Gender Differences in Self-employment in a Young Market Economy

“…The primary sampling units were either statistical regions (for urban strata) or statistical districts (for rural districts).5 Additional models have been used to study selfemployment such as that ofSarkar, Sahoo, and Klasen, 2019, hazard models (e.g. Abbaso?lu Özgören, Ergöçmen, andTansel, 2018) or fuzzy set models (e.g Velilla, Molina, and Ortega, 2018).…”