Unemployment Leads Women to Postpone the Birth of Their First Child

Meron Monique, Widmer Isabelle.- Unemployment Leads Women to Postpone the Birth of Their First Child Unemployment, more than other activity statuses, prompts childless young women in union to delay a prospective maternity. This result is established here for women born between 1952 and 1973, on the basis of data from the Youth and Careers Survey carried out by INSEE in 1997. Young women confronted with a period of unemployment chose to forego their first child for a while, rather than take advantage of the "free" time imposed on them. In contrast, homemakers especially at the beginning of their union tend to have their first births much more rapidly. This result confirms that a period of unemployment is not tantamount to a period of inactivity. In matters of fertility, unemployed women are not homemakers. Economic fluctuations have an especially important impact on the early working life of the young, at the very time when they may be starting a family. The usual statistical analyses do not make it possible to demonstrate a clear link between the growth of unemployment and the increase in the age at first birth. Biographical analysis sheds light on the impact of female unemployment on childbearing plans, by including the timing of life history events of individuals among the variables that explain behaviour. In a society where contraception makes it possible for women to master the timing of their fertility and where female labour force participation has become the norm, these findings show that the family building process and the couples' decisions are now factoring in the work experience and the career goals of both partners.Meron Monique, Widmer Isabelle.- Unemployment Leads Women to Postpone the Birth of Their First Child Unemployment, more than other activity statuses, prompts childless young women in union to delay a prospective maternity. This result is established here for women born between 1952 and 1973, on the basis of data from the Youth and Careers Survey carried out by INSEE in 1997. Young women confronted with a period of unemployment chose to forego their first child for a while, rather than take advantage of the "free" time imposed on them. In contrast, homemakers especially at the beginning of their union tend to have their first births much more rapidly. This result confirms that a period of unemployment is not tantamount to a period of inactivity. In matters of fertility, unemployed women are not homemakers. Economic fluctuations have an especially important impact on the early working life of the young, at the very time when they may be starting a family. The usual statistical analyses do not make it possible to demonstrate a clear link between the growth of unemployment and the increase in the age at first birth. Biographical analysis sheds light on the impact of female unemployment on childbearing plans, by including the timing of life history events of individuals among the variables that explain behaviour. In a society where contraception makes it possible for women to master the timing of their fertility and where female labour force participation has become the norm, these findings show that the family building process and the couples' decisions are now factoring in the work experience and the career goals of both partners.Meron Monique, Widmer Isabelle.- Las mujeres en paro posponen la llegada del primer hijo El paro, más que otras situaciones laborales, incita a las mujeres jóvenes en pareja y sin hijos a posponer los proyectos de maternidad. Este artículo confirma este postulado para las mujeres nacidas entre 1952 y 1973 a través de los resultados de la encuesta Jóvenes y Carreras llevado a cabo por el INSEE en 1 997. Las mujeres jóvenes en paro renuncian tempo- ralmente a tener un primer hijo en lugar de anticipar su llegada para aprovechar el tiempo "libre" impuesto. La situación de ama de casa, en cambio, conlleva primeras maternidades mucho más jóvenes, especialmente al inicio de la vida en pareja. Este resultado confirma que un periodo de desempleo no es equiparable a un periodo de inactividad: en términos de fe- cundidad, las desempleadas no son amas de casa. La coyuntura económica tiene un efecto importante sobre jóvenes que inician su carrera profesionál, en el momento en que son susceptibles de crear una familia. Los análisis estadí- sticos existentes no permiten establecer una relación clara entre el aumento del paro y el re- traso de la maternidad. El análisis biográfico, sin embargo, permite medir el impacto del paro femenino sobre los proyectos de descendencia ya que incluye el tiempo entre sucesos de la historia de vida de los individuos entre las variables explicativas de sus comportamientos. Una sociedad en la cual los anticonceptivos permiten controlar la fecundidad y en la cual la actividad profesionál de las mujeres se ha generalizado, estos resultados muestran que las situaciones profesionales présentes y futuras de ambos cónyuges influyen en los calenda- rios familiares y las decisiones de las parejas.Meron M., Widmer Isabelle. Unemployment Leads Women to Postpone the Birth of Their First Child. In: Population (English edition), 57ᵉ année, n°2, 2002. pp. 301-330