Production, Reproduction, and Education: Women, Children, and Work in a British Perspective

Abstract

PRODUCTION AND REPRODUCTION are necessary activities to sustain human society, but it is often supposed that for women, participation in advanced economies and the bearing of children are incompatible. The increase in economic opportunities for women has been offered as an explanation of low fertility, and maternal responsibility as an explanation of women's underachievement compared to men's in the sphere of paid work. This article reviews the evidence for such incompatibility and its effects on women, childbearing, and children. A novelty of this synthesis is to consider outcomes for children alongside the more familiar theme of female employment and fertility. The story focuses on one country, Great Britain, but allows for differences within it according to levels of human capital. Such disaggregation is necessary because of the empirical heterogeneity of behavior, and also because of the implications of such behavior for the transmission of social inequality across generations. We return to this theme at the end.

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