Effects of education, fertility and divorce on married women's employment: Patterns past, present and future

This project examines the effects of education, fertility, and divorce on married women's labour force participation, focusing particularly on how patterns have changed between 1985 and the present, and on projections for the future. We first develop quantitative estimates of the magnitude of education, fertility, and divorce on women's labour force participation, and how these have changed over time, on the simple assumption that they shape women's employment. Education and fertility used to exert enormous effects on women's labour force participation in Australia, and the possibility that their effects are waning has important implications for FaCS. Next, we entertain the more complex but realistic possibility of reciprocal causation: that women's labour force participation is in part a cause (as well as a consequence) of her fertility and marital stability. We do not include women in de facto relationships in this project, because they behave and feel more like single women than like married women [e.g. Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher (2002) The Case For Marriage. Doubleday Books, and our earlier report for FaCS - M.D.R. Evans and Jonathan Kelley (2002) "Family And Community Influences On Life Satisfaction," Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, report to FaCS, March 2002].

This project is complete.

Working paper arising from the project: Trends in Women's Labour Force Participation in Australia: 1984 - 2002 (pdf 248kb)