II. Intentions de fécondité et réalisation selon la situation d’activité
III. Approche « toutes choses égales »
This study analyses how the experience of unemployment has affected the realization of men’s and women’s fertility intentions in France. The analysis is focused on persons who participated in at least one of the two later waves of GGS (2008 and 2011) as well as the first (2005). Our results show that the frequency of having children was lower among those who experienced an episode of unemployment. However, the effect of unemployment differed by sex and birth rank.
Unemployment’s negative effect on entry into parenthood was greater in women than in men, after controlling for conjugal status. For men, in contrast, the arrival of a first child was delayed most of all either by being a student or by a delayed entry into union—both of which could be consequences of unemployment. The logic of the arrival of a second child was considerably different. Having a second child is very frequent in France and decisions about it are made notably according to the desired spacing between children.
Thus, going through a period of unemployment did not affect the realization of either women’s or men’s projects in this case. Insofar as the economic crisis has affected both the number of people who are unemployed and the amount of time that they spend in unemployment, it could thus lead to a delay in the timing of both first and second births, which could account for a portion of the recent drop in fertility.
