Volume 20 - Article 7 | Pages 97–128  

The impact of female employment on fertility in Dakar (Senegal) and Lomé (Togo)

By Donatien Beguy

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of female employment on fertility in two urban contexts in sub-Saharan Africa: Dakar (Senegal) and Lomé (Togo). The hypothesis that wage employment and maternal obligations are incompatible seems to be corroborated in Lomé, where women are likely to consider work as a legitimate alternative to their role as a mother or spouse. Being involved in economic activity is a real option and can therefore impact upon their reproductive life. By contrast, in Dakar working does not seem to hinder family formation. Greater involvement of women in the labour force is not the main reason for fertility decline in Dakar. These findings illustrate how important it is to consider social gender-specific roles in order to accurately determine the influence of female employment on reproductive life.

Author’s Affiliation

• Donatien Beguy - United Nations Human Settlements (UN Habitat), Kenya EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Measuring extended families over time in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya: Retention and data consistency in a two-round survey
Volume 38 - Article 44

Human capital on the move: Education as a determinant of internal migration in selected INDEPTH surveillance populations in Africa
Volume 34 - Article 30

Circular migration patterns and determinants in Nairobi slum settlements
Volume 23 - Article 20

Similar articles in Demographic Research

Heterogeneity in women’s public and private agency across sub-Saharan Africa
Volume 55 - Article 7    | Keywords: agency, gender equality, health disparities, heterogeneity, latent class analysis, sub-Saharan Africa, sustainable development goals, women status

A personal perspective on the history of the World Fertility Survey and The Demographic and Health Surveys Program: An interview with Tom Pullum
Volume 55 - Article 6    | Keywords: Demographic Health Surveys, fertility, fertility, health, mortality, surveys, World Fertility Survey

Changing roles of marriage and family status for labor migration? The case of rural China
Volume 55 - Article 5    | Keywords: cohort trends, event history analysis, gender, labour migration, rural China

Fertility timing and the birth squeeze
Volume 54 - Article 40    | Keywords: birth squeeze, cyclical populations, fertility, marriage, marriage squeeze, stable population

Educational differences in fertility recuperation: The role of partnership trajectories in Spain
Volume 54 - Article 38    | Keywords: births, fertility, partnership trajectories, recuperation, recuperation of births, Spain