Women and employment: an examination of the relation between types of employment and family formation

Abstract:  Preliminary results concerning commitment to work and the impact of female employment on fertility from a larger survey carried out in 1978 among women aged 20-39 years in the Dominican Republic are presented. In 1970, 27% of women aged 10 or over were economically active; the increase in participation between 1960-70 affected all age groups but was particularly intense among women aged 20-39, who had a rate of nearly 35% in 1970. 33% of the surveyed women reported themselves as economically active in 1978. Another 31% had previously been employed but were no longer working. 41% of those not working had sought employment within the previous year. The survey indicated a significant change in the educational status of the women. 29.3% of women aged 20-24 years had attended or were attending university, compared to 22.1%, 6.6%, and 4.0% in the 3 older cohorts. 20.8% of the respondents were professionals, 25.8% were office workers, 6.8% were in commerce, 9.4% were factory workers, 19.2% were nondomestic service workers, 15.0% were domestic workers, and 1.2% were administrators, functionaries, or large proprietors. Administrators and functionaries had the highest salaries, followed by office workers. Although domestic workers earned low salaries, they declared a higher level of job satisfaction than any other group. Factory workers reported the lowest level of job satisfaction. 17% fewer of the married than the nonmarried workers wished to continue working 5 years into the future, and nondomestic workers had a greater likelihood of continuing work than did domestics. Education of the respondent and her father appeared to be positively related to employment. Age and marriage were negatively related to employment. In the sphere of decision making, younger women, educated women, and employed women were significantly more likely to report joint decision making with the spouse. Regressions of fertility and 2 indicators of marital status on 7 occupational categories and the control variables explained 47% of the variance in fertility, 26% of the variance in the number presently married, and 34% in those married at some time. Fertility was strongly related to education and occupational status. Administrators and functionaries had 2.02 fewer children than those not working; only office workers and professionals also had lower fertility than those not working. Fertility of service workers and those in commerce was significantly higher than that of the nonemployed.