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Women's employment, gender attitude and fertility intentions in urban area in Togo

Firmin Zinvi, Université de Montréal
Vissého Adjiwanou, Université Du Québec à Montréal
Thomas LeGrand, University of Montreal

Women's expectations about how to combine employment and fertility depend on the social context in which they live. However, women may have different attitudes and perceptions about family and work-life in urban areas, where they may be exposed to new norms through mass media, internet, and mobile phone usage. Using data from the first wave of the 2018 longitudinal survey of women and their children in Lomé, this study aims to identify the extent to which the negative association between women's paid employment and intention to limit fertility depends on heterogeneity in gender attitudes toward family and work-life. Recursive bivariate probit and probit regressions are used as the method of analysis. Our results confirm the positive effect between women's paid employment and the desire to limit another child and the positive relationship is mediated by more progressive gender norms attitudes toward employment and family in urban Lomé.

Keywords: Fertility and childbirth, Causal analysis / Causal estimation, Gender

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session P13.