Reproductive to Productive Labor: Exploring Gender Gaps in Female Workforce Participation across Fertility Transitions in India

Roni Sikdar, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Dhananjay W. Bansod, International Institute for Population Sciences
Udaya Shankar Mishra, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum

This paper examines the relationship between fertility transitions and female workforce participation in India, focusing on the shift from reproductive to productive labor. We use the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS) longitudinal data from 2004-2005 and 2011-2012. We examine how labor market outcomes are impacted by reproductive burdens among women. The study uses the same women throughout the study by making a panel. Descriptive statistics, fixed-effects regression, chi-square test, and Heckman sample selection models are used to estimate the impact of fertility on female labor participation and working hours. The result shows that an increase in number of children significantly decreases the likelihood of women participating in paid employment and total annual work hours. Women with more than two children [coef.: -0.02; CI: -0.04, -0.01] are more likely to exit from labor market, and caste, education, and regional background influence these outcomes. While women with fewer children (3%) are more likely to enter or remain in the workforce. The findings highlight that reproductive labor contributes to gender disparities in workforce participation. This underscores the importance of policies that reduce reproductive barriers to increase female participation in the productive labor market, which is crucial for economic growth and development in India.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Longitudinal studies , Fertility, Economic Demography

See paper.