Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2003, pp. , 2024/12/12
It is the purpose of this paper to look at the extent to which the division of household work and childrearing tasks influence a couple's plans of further childbearing. We concentrate on women with one child, looking at the question whether women whose partners share the domestic responsibilities wish to have a second child more often than women with partners who do not help out. The data used in this study are drawn from the Austrian Fertility and Family Survey 1995/96 (FFS) which covered biographies of partnerships and childbearing, detailed information on the division of household chores and childcare duties between the two sexes as
well as the desire for a(nother) child. We modelled the desire for a second child using a probit model. The major findings of the paper are that sharing childcare duties among couples is a
driving force behind the plans for further childbearing, whereas the division of (traditionally feminine) household tasks between men and women has no explanatory power.
Keywords: Household; Childrearing; Childbearing; Gender Equality; Austria
