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  • Title: A simple model for interpreting cross-tabulations of family size and women's labour force participation.
    Author: Blanchet D, Pennec S.
    Journal: Eur J Popul; 1993; 9(2):121-42. PubMed ID: 12158969.
    Abstract:
    In this study, cross classifications by labor force, (LF) activity and fertility status and a simple log linear model were used to model the value given to activity and fertility differentials in France alone and according to the educational level of both parents. The variability of activity and fertility was viewed as strongly determined by the motivation for work and the preference for large or small families. The interactions were also examined for 12 other European countries with comparable data from the European Labor Force Survey of 1990. This analysis resulted in startling findings that variations of activity and fertility between European countries did not result from simple differences in the value women attach to work. Geographic or national differences were found to be important in explanatory models and quite separate from changes over time or across social groups within countries. The 2 x 2 cross classifications used in the 4 cells for analysis were women with a complete professional career (high LFP) with large and small families and women with little involvement in the labor force (low LFP) with large and small families. Values are attached to the 4 cells. The percentage given any one cell of the contingency table was equal to the probability that the value associated with this cell was greater than that for the 3 other ones. The logarithms of the set of frequencies of cells a, b, c, d were rearranged to yield values for alpha, beta, and omega terms, which had behavioral meanings and were not constrained. The scenarios were 3=fold. The trends in France since the 1960s have been a large increase in total activity rates for women and an increase even when controlling for family size, a decline in the proportion of large families, and fertility rates without a significant trend after controlling for activity status. Data from the 1968 and 1982 censuses for France showed that activity increased at any family size, fertility changed much less. The average value for women's employment changes from negative to positive; it appears that there is a decreasing value given to a large family. When educational levels are considered in 1982, again the increased value given to work was more salient for explaining the changes, where causality was based on the interdependence of fertility and activity conditioned by the incompatibility factor omega and influenced by alphas affecting activity and betas affecting fertility.
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