Two Sides of a Coin: the Relationship Between Work Autonomy and Childbearing

This paper investigates the under-researched role of the three types of work autonomy – control over how, when and where to work – for both the entry into parenthood and the transition to a second child across different social strata in the United Kingdom. Over the past three decades, employees have gained increased work autonomy, a trend expected to persist with technological advancements. Work autonomy substantially affects the combination of paid work and family life. But its multifaceted impact on workers’ fertility behavior, especially across different educational levels, has remained unclear. The study employs a sample of partnered women and men from UKHLS 2009-2019 data. Event-history models are estimated. We find no relationship between work autonomy and fertility behavior for men. Work autonomy is only weakly related to the childbearing behavior of highly-educated women, though mothers with a university degree who have control over their work time are more likely to have a second child. For lower-educated women work autonomy is often negatively related to childbearing. The study highlights the intricate link between work autonomy and fertility and emphasizes important social stratification in the impact of autonomy on individuals. Further research is needed to unravel the observed duality, i.e., understanding the challenges posed by work autonomy for fertility, especially among the lower-educated.