Social context, household composition and employment among migrant and nonmigrant Dominican women.

PIP: It is argued in this article that the social context of ethnic groups may shape employment patterns by immigrant women. This study examines the effects of household composition on the employment patterns among Dominican Republic migrants in New York City and among Dominicans in the Dominican Republic. This study is based on studies by Tienda and Glass and expands household composition groups. The comparison between countries serves as a control for the effects of culture. The inclusion in the US sample of Colombian migrants serves to further reinforce the effects of social context over cultural influences. Data are obtained from the 1981 survey of 528 Colombian and Dominican migrant women aged 20-45 years living in New York City's Queens borough and 50% of Manhattan borough and a 1978 survey of women living in Santo Domingo and Santiago. Women who lived in the Dominican Republic were better educated and more likely to be employed. Over 50% of migrant women in New York received public assistance, and 88% of women receiving public assistance were female heads of households. In the Dominican Republic, the social context did not include the opportunity for receipt of public assistance. 61% of women living in the Dominican Republic and only 50% of migrant women were currently married. Female headship was 36.8% in the US and 11.8% abroad. Twice as many households abroad included other adult family members. These findings illustrate the importance of social context and household composition in explaining female immigrant employment. Dominican women living in New York with children and without a spouse were less likely to be employed than women with spouses or women without spouses or children. In the Dominican Republic, women with spouses or adult men in the household were less likely to work. Selective migration was ruled out as an explanatory factor.^ieng

Female employment and fertility in the Dominican Republic: a dynamic perspective.

PIP: Using a sequential events model, the relationship between female employment and fertility during a 5 year period in the 1970s is analyzed among married women in urban areas of the Dominican Republic. The use of alternative measures and procedures produced a consistent set of results indicating that there exists, at most, a minimal relationship between employment and fertility. While the focus has been on proximate events among stable married women, some evidence is provided of an inverse fertility employment relationship over the long term. The number of surviving children a woman had prior to the interval was negatively associated with interval employment, and the relationship between interval fertility and subsequent employment was negative but insignificant. The cumulation of birth tends to keep married women out of the labor force, but the effect is small. No effect, however, was observed of long or short term employment on interval fertility. Type of work also proved to be essentially unrelated to fertility. Only among white collar women who had recently initiated work did a negative relationship appear. Since employment in white collar professions represents the closest measure of employment in the "modern" sector, this finding indicates that fertility may be postponed over the short term while women develop the job specific skills and relations required to assure job reentry following childbirth. The apparent low degree of incompatibility between the roles of mother and market worker is not totally surprising given social and economic conditions in the Dominican Republic. The employment patterns resulting from general economic conditions may serve to reduce role incompatibility. There appears to be relative ease of market reentry, particularly in low skilled occupations such as domestic service and sales. When stable long term employment is not commonly available to mothers, frequent exits from the labor force to have children may not affect the quality and economic value of future employment, thereby reducing incompatibility between motherhood and employment. A more powerful employment effect on fertility may be occurring during earlier life cycle stages of Dominican women. Rapid social change is reflected in rising age at marriage, increasing proportions of women who never marry, rapid fertility declines, and increasing female employment. Better educated and more economically active women are less likely to be in marital unions. Similarly, employment may be affecting fertility through a delay in 1st marriage. While employment within marriage does not interfere significantly with childbearing, over the long run the effect may be negative. As women become more highly educated and seek employment, they appear less likely to marry or are likely to postpone their 1st marriage. Changes in women's status at earlier life cycle stages need to be examined in future dynamic studies to identify key determinants of subsequent life cycle events.^ieng

[Women and employment: an examination of the relation between types of employment and family formation]. / Mujeres, y empleo: un examen de la relacion entre tipos de empleo y formacion de la familia.

PIP: Preliminary results concerning commitment to work and the impact of female employment on fertility from a larger survey carried out in 1978 among women aged 20-39 years in the Dominican Republic are presented. In 1970, 27% of women aged 10 or over were economically active; the increase in participation between 1960-70 affected all age groups but was particularly intense among women aged 20-39, who had a rate of nearly 35% in 1970. 33% of the surveyed women reported themselves as economically active in 1978. Another 31% had previously been employed but were no longer working. 41% of those not working had sought employment within the previous year. The survey indicated a significant change in the educational status of the women. 29.3% of women aged 20-24 years had attended or were attending university, compared to 22.1%, 6.6%, and 4.0% in the 3 older cohorts. 20.8% of the respondents were professionals, 25.8% were office workers, 6.8% were in commerce, 9.4% were factory workers, 19.2% were nondomestic service workers, 15.0% were domestic workers, and 1.2% were administrators, functionaries, or large proprietors. Administrators and functionaries had the highest salaries, followed by office workers. Although domestic workers earned low salaries, they declared a higher level of job satisfaction than any other group. Factory workers reported the lowest level of job satisfaction. 17% fewer of the married than the nonmarried workers wished to continue working 5 years into the future, and nondomestic workers had a greater likelihood of continuing work than did domestics. Education of the respondent and her father appeared to be positively related to employment. Age and marriage were negatively related to employment. In the sphere of decision making, younger women, educated women, and employed women were significantly more likely to report joint decision making with the spouse. Regressions of fertility and 2 indicators of marital status on 7 occupational categories and the control variables explained 47% of the variance in fertility, 26% of the variance in the number presently married, and 34% in those married at some time. Fertility was strongly related to education and occupational status. Administrators and functionaries had 2.02 fewer children than those not working; only office workers and professionals also had lower fertility than those not working. Fertility of service workers and those in commerce was significantly higher than that of the nonemployed.^ieng