Married women’s employment and the timing of the 1st marriage and the 1st childbirth in Japan: patterns and covariates

Keita Suga, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan

This paper investigates the patterns and covariates of the married women’s labor force participation around the time of the 1st marriage and the 1st childbirth. In particular, using a newly available micro-data for a Japanese family life history, we analyze a job continuation behavior beyond the marriage and the childbirth under the ongoing circumstances of the delayed marriage and subsequent childbirth. From a descriptive analysis, we found a clear correlation between the duration at the employment that women participated before the marriage and the duration from entering the job to the occurrences of the 1st marriage and the 1st childbirth. The fact implies strong association of the occurrences of the marriage and the childbirth as the risk factors for the job continuation. Moreover, by a lifetable type analysis, we found that the survival rates on the job before the marriage beyond the 1st marriage and the 1st childbirth are higher for younger generations and highly educated women. The results are confirmed by a discrete time event analysis in which other potential factor variables and interactions between them are controlled. Enhanced policy supports for mothers are urgent not only for a response to the low fertility but also for a welfare of married women in the context of Japanese society where a non-negligible proportion of women carry a heavy double burden both in a family life and in an employment.