ABSTRACT

By investigating changes in the association between women’s socioeconomic status, labor market activity and fertility outcomes during the Swedish baby boom 1900–60 this study reaches three main conclusions. First, the results show that a convergence of fertility behavior occurred across female socioeconomic strata during the peak baby boom period in the 1940s and 1950s in terms of a strong two child norm. Second, the negative socio-economic gradient of fertility found in Sweden before the baby boom declined sharply among women who came of age during the 1940s and 1950s, as white-collar women increased their fertility more than all the other strata. Third, this was especially the case for women engaged in the so called ‘caring professions’ that exhibit the largest changes in behavior. The pattern found in contemporary Western contexts where women in healthcare and education have a substantially higher fertility was thus formed in Sweden already during the 1940s and 1950s. The empirical finding fit with the interpretation that middle-class women employed in the public sector experienced stronger reductions in constraints to family formation compared to women employed in the private sector. We propose that the pronatalist polices implemented in the 1930s and 1940s, especially the extensive improvements in employment protection implemented for women who got married or became pregnant in the late 1930s in Sweden, is one important factor to consider when we try to understand why especially women employed in the public sector in education and healthcare increased their fertility more than other groups.

摘要

通过调查在1900-60年代瑞典婴儿潮期间妇女的社会经济地位，劳动力市场活动和生育结果之间的关联变化，该研究得出了三个主要结论。首先，研究结果表明，在1940年代和1950年代婴儿潮高峰时期，生育行为在女性社会经济阶层中趋于一致。其次，在1940年代和1950年代成年女性中，生育高峰之前在瑞典发现的生育力的社会经济负梯度急剧下降，因为白领女性的生育力比其他所有阶层都高。第三，对于从事行为变化最大的所谓“关爱职业”的妇女来说尤其如此。因此，在1940年代和1950年代瑞典已经形成了在当代西方环境中从事医疗保健和教育的妇女生育率大大提高的模式。实证结果与以下解释相吻合：与私营部门相比，受雇于公共部门的中产阶级妇女对家庭形成的限制得到了更大程度的减少。我们建议在1930年代和1940年代实施的促进孕产妇政策，特别是在1930年代后期在瑞典对已婚或怀孕的妇女实施的就业保护方面的广泛改进，是我们试图了解为什么特别是妇女时要考虑的重要因素之一在公共部门受教育和保健工作的人比其他群体增加了他们的生育能力。