Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Gender Equity, Opportunity Costs of Parenthood, and Educational Differences in Unintended First Births: Insights from Japan

  • Published:
Population Research and Policy Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We examine educational differences in the intendedness of first births in Japan using data from a nationally representative survey of married women (N = 2,373). We begin by describing plausible scenarios for a negative, null, and positive educational gradient in unintended first births. In contrast to well-established results from the U.S., we find evidence of a positive educational gradient in Japan. Net of basic demographic controls, university graduates are more likely than less-educated women to report first births as unintended. This pattern is consistent with a scenario emphasizing the high opportunity costs of motherhood in countries such as Japan where growing opportunities for women in employment and other domains of public life have not been accompanied by changes in the highly asymmetric roles of men and women within the family. We discuss potential implications of this suggestive finding for other low-fertility settings.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Augustine, J. M., Nelson, T., & Edin, K. (2009). Why do poor men have children? fertility intentions among low-income unmarried U.S. fathers. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 624, 99–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bachrach, C. A., & Newcomer, S. (1999). Intended pregnancies and unintended pregnancies: distinct categories or opposite ends of a continuum? Family Planning Perspectives, 31, 251–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, J. S., Axinn, W. G., & Thornton, A. (1999). Unwanted childbearing, health, and mother-child relationships. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 40, 231–257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, J. S., & East, P. L. (2009). Home and parenting resources available to siblings depending on their birth intention status. Child Development, 80, 921–939.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baydar, N. (1995). Consequences for children of their birth planning status. Family Planning Perspectives, 27, 228–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. S. (1991). A treatise on the family. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boling, P. (2007). Policies to support working mothers and children in Japan. In F. M. Robsenbluth & C. A. Stanford (Eds.), The political economy of Japan’s low fertility (pp. 131–154). Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boonstra, H. D., Gold, R. B., Richards, C. L., & Finer, L. B. (2006). Abortion in women’s lives. New York: Guttmacher Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S. S., & Eisenberg, L. (1995). The best intentions: unintended pregnancy and the well-being of children and families. Washington D.C.: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bumpass, L. L. (1987). The risk of an unwanted birth: the changing context of contraceptive sterilization in the U.S. Population Studies, 41, 347–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bumpass, L. L., Rindfuss, R. R., Choe, M. K., & Tsuya, N. O. (2009). The institutional context of low fertility: the case of Japan. Asian Population Studies, 3, 215–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, M., McLanahan, S., & England, P. (2004). Union formation in fragile families. Demography, 41, 237–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casterline, J. B., & El-Zeini, L. O. (2007). The estimation of unwanted fertility. Demography, 44, 729–745.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crissey, S. R. (2005). Effect of pregnancy intention on child well-being and development: combining retrospective reports of attitude and contraceptive use. Population Research and Policy Review, 24, 593–615.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edin, K., England, P., Shafer, E. F., & Reed, J. (2007). Forming fragile families: was the baby planned, unplanned, or in between? In P. England & K. Edin (Eds.), Unmarried couples with children (pp. 25–54). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edin, K., & Kefalas, M. (2005). Promises I can keep: why poor women put motherhood before marriage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finer, L. B., & Henshaw, S. K. (2006). Disparities in rates of unintended pregnancy in the United States, 1994 and 2001. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 38, 90–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibson-Davis, C. M., Edin, K., & McLanahan, S. (2005). High hopes but even higher expectations: the retreat from marriage among low-income couples. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 1301–1312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hertog, E., & Iwasawa, M. (2011). Marriage, abortion, or unwed motherhood? how women evaluate alternative solutions to premarital pregnancies in Japan and the United States. Journal of Family Issues, 32, 1674–1699.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt, B., England, P., Baxter, J., & Shafer, E. F. (2010). Education and unintended pregnancies in Australia: do differences in relationship status and age at birth explain the education gradient? Population Review, 49, 36–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirao, K.. (2007). The privatized education market and maternal employment in Japan. In F. M. Robsenbluth (Ed.), The political economy of Japan’s low fertility (pp. 170–200). Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Japan Statistics Bureau (2003). Summary of Results of the 2001 Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities. Research and Analysis Section, Labor Force Statistics Office, Statistical Survey Department, Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Tokyo. (http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/shakai/2001/shousai/yoyaku.htm).

  • Joyce, T. (2011). The supply-side economics of abortion. New England Journal of Medicine, 365, 1466–1469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joyce, T. J., Kaestner, R., & Korenman, S. S. (2000). The effect of pregnancy intention on child development. Demography, 37, 83–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufmann, R. B., Morris, L., & Spitz, A. M. (1997). Comparison of two question sequences for assessing pregnancy. American Journal of Epidemiology, 145, 810–816.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kost, K., Singh, S., Vaughan, B., Trussell, J., & Bankole, A. (2008). Estimates of contraceptive failure from the 2002 national survey of family growth. Contraception, 7, 10–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kye, B. (2011). Delay in first marriage and first childbearing in South Korea: trends in educational differentials. Unpublished manuscript.

  • McDonald, P. (2000). Gender equity, social institutions and the future of fertility. Journal of Population Research, 17, 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLanahan, S. (2004). Diverging destinies: how children are faring under the second demographic transition. Demography, 41, 607–627.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, W. (1994). Reproductive decisions: how we make them and how they make us. In L. J. Severy (Ed.), Advances in population (Vol. 2, pp. 1–27). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moos, M. K., Petersen, R., Meadows, K., Melvin, C. L., & Spitz, A. M. (1997). Pregnant women’s perspectives on intendedness of pregnancy. Women’s Health Issues, 7, 385–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, S. P., & Parnell, A. (2002). Effects on pregnancy outcomes of changes in the North Carolina state abortion fund. Population Research and Policy Review, 21, 319–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mosher W. D., Jones, J. and Abma, J. C. (2012). Intended and unintended births in the United States: 1982–2010. National Health Statistics Reports No. 55. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.

  • Musick, K., England, P., Edgington, S., & Kangas, N. (2009). Education differences in intended and unintended fertility. Social Forces, 88, 543–572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagase, N. (2014). The effect of child care leave law on the work continuation and fertility timing using natural experiment in Japan. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. Boston.

  • National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. (2012a). Latest population statistics. Tokyo: National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. (2012b). Marriage Process and Fertility of Japanese Married Couples: Overview of the Results of the Fourteenth Japanese National Fertility Survey in 2010. Tokyo: National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. (http://www.ipss.go.jp/sitead/index_english/nfs14/Nfs14_Couples_Eng.pdf).

  • Perelli-Harris, B., Sigle-Rushton, W., Kreyenfeld, M., Lappegård, T., Keizer, R., & Berghammer, C. (2010). The educational gradient of childbearing within cohabitation in Europe. Population and Development Review, 36, 775–801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Philipov, D. (2011). Theories on fertility intentions: a demographer’s perspective. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, 2011(9), 37–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raymo, J. M., Fukuda, S., & Iwasawa, M. (2013). Educational differences in divorce in Japan. Demographic Research, 28, 177–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raymo, J. M., & Iwasawa, M. (2008). Bridal pregnancy and spouse pairing patterns in Japan. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 847–860.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raymo, J. M., & Lim, S. J. (2011). A new look at married women’s labor force transitions in Japan. Social Science Research, 40, 460–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryder, N. B. (1973). Contraceptive failure in the United States. Family Planning Perspectives, 5, 133–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sato, R., & Iwasawa, M. (2006). Contraceptive use and induced abortion in Japan: how is it so unique among the developed countries? Japanese Journal of Population, 4, 33–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoen, R., Astone, N. M., Kim, Y. J., Nathanson, C. A., & Fields, J. M. (1999). Do fertility intentions affect fertility behavior? Journal of Marriage and Family, 61, 790–799.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shishido, K., Iwai, N., & Yasuda, T. (2009). Designing response categories of agreement scales for cross-national surveys in East Asia: the approach of the Japanese general social surveys. International Journal of Japanese Sociology, 18, 97–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, J., Torres, A., & Forrest, J. D. (1987). Barriers to contraceptive services. Family Planning Perspectives, 19, 94–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanford, J. B., Hobbs, R., Jameson, M. P., DeWitt, J., & Fischer, R. C. (2000). Defining dimensions of pregnancy intendedness. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 4, 183–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Su, J. H. (2012). Pregnancy intentions and parents’ psychological well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74, 1182–1196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trussell, J., Vaughan, B., & Stanford, J. (1999). Are all contraceptive failures unintended pregnancies? Evidence from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth. Family Planning Perspectives, 31, 246–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsuya, N. O., Bumpass, L. L., Choe, M. K., & Rindfuss, R. R. (2005). Is the gender division of labour changing in Japan? Asian Population Studies, 1, 47–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsuya, N. O., Choe, M. K., Rindfuss, R. R. and Bumpass, L. L. (2013). Low fertility in Japan: intentions and behavior, 2000–2009. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, New Orleans.

  • Tsuya, N. O., & Mason, K. O. (1995). Changing gender roles and below-replacement fertility in Japan. In K. O. Mason & A.-M. Jensen (Eds.), Gender and family change in industrialized countries (pp. 139–167). Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • U. S. Census Bureau. (2012). Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2012/tables.html. Accessed 19 Nov 2013.

  • Westoff, C. F., & Bankole, A. (1996). The potential demographic significance of unmet need. International Family Planning Perspectives, 22, 16–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, L., & Abma, J. (2000). Birth wantedness reports: a look forward and a look back. Biodemography and Social Biology, 47, 147–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, L., Abma, J., & Piccinino, L. J. (1999). The correspondence between intention to avoid childbearing and subsequent fertility: a prospective analysis. Family Planning Perspectives, 31, 220–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamaguchi, K. (2005). Determinants of low-fertility and countermeasures: the role of husbands, the role of the government, and the role of society. Research on Household Economics, 66, 57–67. In Japanese.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zabin, L. S., Astone, N. M., & Emerson, M. R. (1993). Do adolescents want babies? The relationship between attitudes and behavior. Journal of Research on Adolescents, 3, 67–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Center for Demography and Ecology (R24HD047873) and the Cornell Population Center (5R24HD058488), both funded through grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. Permission to use data from the National Fertility Surveys was obtained through the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research on the basis of the Statistics Act (Act No. 53 of 2007), Article 32.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James M. Raymo.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Raymo, J.M., Musick, K. & Iwasawa, M. Gender Equity, Opportunity Costs of Parenthood, and Educational Differences in Unintended First Births: Insights from Japan. Popul Res Policy Rev 34, 179–199 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-014-9348-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-014-9348-3

Keywords

Navigation