Female labour force participation as a factor affecting
fertility has recently attracted considerable attention in both,
developing and developed societies. It has been theorized that female
work would have a depressing effect on fertility because of the high
opportunity cost involved in high fertility. On the other hand, it has
been argued that higher family income could induce more fertility. Some
of the socio-demographic reasons that determine female work status could
explain differentials in fertility desires. A number of important
reasons which lead women to work can be identified : the availability of
jobs, the economic 'push' from low family income, husband's attitude
towards wife's work, attractiveness of the job in terms of monetary
and/or psychological satisfaction, etc. Two distinct, though related,
hypotheses about the relationship between female work and fertility can
be summarized from relevant studies. The first hypothesis pertains to
the motivation leading to female work. Jobs could be taken up sheerly
out of economic necessity or because the woman wants to develop a career
for reasons other than purely economic. The first type of jobs might be
conceived as being motivated by 'push' factors while the second type
would be motivated by 'pull' factors, given other variables such as job
availability. This differential motivation to work would be related to
the wife's attitude towards having additional children.' In the former
case, family size itself might be one of the factors which 'pushed' the
wife into the labour force. The cost of reducing fertility (i.e. not
having another child) in this case, however, might, under some
circumstances be high, because having additional children might, for
example, be perceived as being economically profitable in terms of
providing farm hands, old age security, ete. Furthermore, the
competition between procreation and female work participation would not
be very great since the job was taken up be¬cause of necessity rather
than for self and career development. The motivation to curtail
fertility would thus be minimal. On the other hand, we would expect
greater competition between female work and fertility in case of a woman
who took up a job in order to develop her career and personality in
addition to the eco¬nomic incentive provided by her work
Female Labour Force Participation and Fertility Desires in
Pakistan: An Empirical Investigation