Role conflict and fertility.

If the assumption that rates of female labor force participation increase as industrialization occurs is valid a knowledge of any relationship between female labor force participation and fertility is necessary in order to assess and understand the future population trends in the developing countries. It has been reasonably well established that conflict between the roles of mother and worker explains to a great extent the relationship between female labor force participation and fertility. The fact that this relationship tends to be missing in less developed countries is attributable to an absence of role conflict; it tends to be fairly strong in the developed countries because in industrialized societies it is difficult to be both a worker and a mother with young children. Survey data collected in San Juan Puerto Rico were analyzed. Methodologically cross-sectional data such as those used in this and other analyses cannot provide an indication of the extent to which increases in rates of female labor force participation will result in decreases in fertility rates. It also needs to be noted that lower fertility is not associated with female employment per se but with certain aspects of it. Thus if the overall objective of the policy is to lower fertility the program should be directed toward those specific dimensions of labor force participation which do affect fertility. 1 of these is occupation. White collar employment is strongly related to a later age at marriage and to lower fertility.