The tradeoff that women face between work and family depends largely on a country’s institutional settings. Provisions like stable employment, maternity benefits, and childcare services can affect women’s fertility behaviours. In Ghana, the majority of women work in vulnerable self-employment positions. Among paid female employees, the degree of job security also varies. Largely studied in the developed country context, job insecurity has been found to have important effects on women’s reproductive health outcomes. As yet, there is no consensus on the direction of effects. The relationship has been argued to be largely country- and context- specific. This paper examines the nature of the relationship for a developing country, Ghana, where female labour force participation is high, paid employment is scarce, and there are few affordable childcare services. We use 2017 data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) and empirical techniques to control for self-selectivity. Initially, we find evidence consistent with the compensation hypothesis, an uncertain work environment encourages higher fertility. This is because becoming a parent and having more children can be a way to make the future safer and more predictable. This explanation is particularly relevant for settings like Ghana where fertility is valued. The observed strong, negative relationship between job security and fertility is however found to be largely attributable to self-selection of women into particular jobs. Career-oriented women self-select into more secure jobs, and have fewer children, given the higher associated costs; and, characterized by lower pay, family-oriented women self-select into less secure but more flexible jobs, in order to care for their children. In the absence of government or institutional policies, women face a difficult choice between family and work aspirations. Polices and institutions should therefore be put in place to reduce these work-family challenges.

妇女在工作和家庭之间面临的权衡很大程度上取决于一个国家的体制设置。诸如稳定就业，产妇津贴和育儿服务之类的规定会影响妇女的生育行为。在加纳，大多数妇女担任脆弱的自营职业。在带薪女雇员中，工作保障的程度也各不相同。在发达国家中进行了大量研究，发现工作不安全感对妇女的生殖健康成果具有重要影响。迄今为止，关于效果的方向尚无共识。有人认为这种关系在很大程度上是针对特定国家和特定情况的。本文探讨了加纳的这种关系的本质，该国加纳的女性劳动力参与率很高，有薪工作稀缺，而且几乎没有负担得起的托儿服务。我们使用来自加纳生活水平调查（GLSS）的2017年数据和经验技术来控制自我选择。最初，我们发现与薪酬假说相符的证据，不确定的工作环境会鼓励更高的生育率。这是因为成为父母并生育更多孩子可以使未来更加安全和可预测。这种解释对于像加纳这样的重视生育的地区特别有用。但是，发现在工作保障与生育率之间存在强烈的消极关系，这在很大程度上归因于妇女自我选择担任特定工作。考虑到相关的费用增加，以职业为导向的妇女可以自我选择从事更安全的工作，并生育较少的子女；而且，以较低的薪水为特征，以家庭为导向的妇女为了照顾自己的孩子而自我选择从事较不安全但较灵活的工作。在没有政府或机构政策的情况下，妇女面临着家庭志向和工作志向之间的艰难选择。因此，应该建立政策和机构以减少这些工作家庭的挑战。