Principal investigator: Silvio da Rosa Paula
Article title: EMPLOYMENT STATUS AND CONTRACEPTIVE CHOICES OF
WOMEN WITH YOUNG CHILDREN IN TURKEY
Author of the article: Didem Pekkurnaz
Location of the intervention: Turkey
Sample size: 2.608 women
Main theme: Genre
Type of Intervention: To analyze the impact of the employment situation of women with young children on the use of a contraceptive method.
Main Variable of Interest: Contraceptive methods
Evaluation method: Other (Conditional Mixed Process (CMP), simultaneous equations, Probit)
Evaluation Context
According to the Institute of Population Studies at Hacettepe University, between 2003 and 2013, contraceptive use in Turkey increased from 71% to 73,5%. During the same period, the use of modern contraceptive methods also increased from 42,5% to 47,4%, while the use of traditional methods decreased from 28,5% to 26%. Furthermore, the labor force participation of women aged 15 to 64 increased from 28,1% to 33,7%, bringing the female employment rate to 29,6% in 2013. Even though this shows a growing trend in women's labor market participation, this trend has generally been lower than for men and well below the averages observed in countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Among the main reasons that explain the low rates of female participation in the labor market in Turkey is the burden of childcare.
Methodology Details
In many studies, researchers are interested in establishing a cause-and-effect relationship. To achieve this goal, regression models are generally used. In this study, the authors use regressions to establish a relationship between contraceptive methods and women's labor market participation. However, when endogeneity exists, it is not possible to establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship, making it necessary to resort to other regression methods to correctly establish this relationship, avoiding inappropriate inferences.
In the context of this study, the authors highlight a potential problem of endogeneity between women's work variables and contraceptive choice, given that it is reasonable to assume that women with above-average skills may be more likely to be employed. Furthermore, employment-related factors, such as higher pay, can affect contraceptive behavior, causing women to postpone the decision to have children. Consequently, it is not possible to establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship, since contraceptive choice can affect women's work and work can affect contraceptive choice, characterizing endogeneity by simultaneity.
Given these considerations, the authors resort to the estimator proposed by David Roodman (2011), conditional mixed process (CMP), which will allow the identification of the causal relationship through simultaneous equations, using variables that only affect women's employment status, but have no effect on contraceptive decisions. The variables used for this purpose were employment rates at the provincial level and the percentage of women employed in a given sector (agriculture and manufacturing). Thus, with the use of these instruments, the authors hope to correctly identify the cause-and-effect relationship.
Intervention Details
For this study, data from the 2013 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey were used, which collects information on various aspects of women's lives such as fertility, family planning, child health, maternal health, and employment status of randomly selected families. In total, there are 9.746 women in the 2013 survey. However, only information from 2.608 women is used, excluding pregnant women, infertile women, women who were sterilized before the year of the survey, women with sterilized partners, and women with children under 6 years old.
The information from the selected women was divided into two main groups. The group of women who use traditional contraceptive methods (periodic abstinence, withdrawal, and any other folk method), and the group that uses modern methods (pill, IUD, injections, diaphragms, condoms, female and male sterilization, implants, and LAM). In addition, other information is used, such as the number of children under 6 years old, between 6 and 13 years old, and between 14 and 17 years old, the presence of adults other than the husband, the woman's level of education, the husband's level of education, ideal fertility, wealth index, whether she resides in an urban or rural area, whether she is a public employee, informal worker, or has other jobs, and the availability of daycare centers in the municipality.
Results
The results indicate that working women are more likely to use a contraceptive method than unemployed women. This supports the hypothesis that women more involved in the labor market have a higher opportunity cost of raising children compared to unemployed women. Therefore, they would be more inclined to use a contraceptive method to avoid unintended pregnancy. Furthermore, employed women are more likely to use modern contraceptive methods instead of traditional ones compared to unemployed women. One explanation relates to their ability to afford more modern contraceptive methods.
Furthermore, the results indicate that an increase in the public supply of daycare centers and
Preschool institutions increase the likelihood of employment for women with young children. On the other hand, a higher proportion of private childcare services leads to a lower likelihood of employment, as they are not accessible to many families. Finally, comparing women based on job category, in particular, women in the public service and women in other paid work conditions, the results indicate that female public employees are more likely to use modern methods compared to traditional ones, corroborating the hypothesis that access to modern methods is easier for women working in high-status, better-paid jobs.
Lessons in Public Policy
In this study, the authors investigate the impact of the employment status of women with children below primary school age on the use of contraceptive methods. Although there are differences between Brazil and Turkey regarding public policies on access to contraceptive methods, the results are interesting for understanding the factors that influence women's entry into the labor market.
Another important finding of the study that aligns with the Brazilian reality is the importance of the availability of public daycare centers. According to a study by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE),IBGEBased on data from the 2010 Census, the employment rate of women with children up to three years old attending daycare was 65,4%, higher than that of those whose children did not attend daycare, which was 41,2%. Given this reality, achieving the goals established by the National Education Plan (PNE), which aims to ensure that at least 50% of children aged 0 to 3 are enrolled in daycare by 2024, would be an important factor in promoting greater participation of women in the Brazilian labor market.
Reference
PEKKURNAZ, Didem. Employment Status and Contraceptive Choices of Women With Young Children in Turkey. Feminist Economics, v. 26, no. 1, p. 98-120, 2020.
