Does More Support in Children's Care Make a Difference in Working Women's Fertility?

Antonella Pinnelli, Università di Roma "La Sapienza"
Francesca Fiori, Università di Roma "La Sapienza"

Women have always been devoted to the care of their children, and they keep primary responsibility even when they are involved in the labor market. Partner cooperation, family networks, and institutions can provide women with support, relieving some of the burden of childcare tasks. A greater source of support may improve fertility expectations. This paper aims at verifying this hypothesis in Italy, a country with very low fertility. Women’s, even mothers', participation in the labor market has recently become remarkable. We intend to verify whether women receive more help when they work, both from their partner and the family network and from institutions, and whether greater support improves fertility expectations. We utilize the ISTAT Survey on Births, which allows the study of both the actual fertility of women who had a child 18-24 months before the interview, and their fertility expectations.