Abstract
The impact of the transition to parenthood on the labour-force activity of Swedish women one year after first birth is studied using data from the 1981 Swedish Fertility Survey. The probability of remaining at home one year after delivery is found to be significantly affected by length of education, marital status, early labour-force withdrawal and duration of union. Highly educated women seem to have already established a pattern of low home attachment by the mid-50s. Women with less education have tended to ‘catch-up’ with this low home attachment over time. For women with a medium level of education there is, however, a slight reversal of this downward trend toward the end of the 1970s.
Résumé
A l'aide des données de l'Enquête Suédoise de Fécondité de 1981, l'auteur étudie l'impact de l'accès à la maternité sur l'activité économique des Suédoises un an après la naissance de leur premier enfant. La probabilité d'être mère au foyer un an après l'accouchement s'avère nettement sensible à la durée des études, au statut matrimonial, à la précocité de la cessation d'activité et à la durée de l'union. Les femmes qui ont le plus haut niveau d'instruction semblent avoir adopté dès le milieu des années 50 un modèle de faible attachement au foyer. Les moins instruites se sont peu à peu emparées de ce modèle. Mais, chez les femmes de niveau d'instruction moyen, on observe un léger retournement de cette tendance descendante vers la fin des années 70.
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Acknowledgments: This paper is part of an ongoing research project in the Section of Demography, University of Stockholm, called ‘Life-cycle phases of Swedish women: a study of education, labour-force participation and childbearing among Swedish women born in 1936–1960’, financed by the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and the Delegation for Social Research. Statistics Sweden kindly granted access to anonymized data from the 1981 Swedish Fertility Survey. Work by Jozef Saers to maintain the project computing facilities was financed by grant No. HD 19226 from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, USA.
I am especially grateful to Jan M. Hoem for indispensable methodological advice. I would also like to thank anonymous referees who commented on an earlier version of this article (presented at the IUSSP Conference in Florence, June 1985). In addition I profited greatly from discussion at a seminar held at the University of Stockholm in October 1985, particularly from comments offered by Britta Hoem and Robert Erikson.
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Bernhardt, E.M. Women's home attachment at first birth. Eur J Population 2, 5–29 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01796878
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01796878