The link between women's career development and parenthood

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August 16, 2024

  • Shungo Koreeda
  • Takayuki Nitta
  • Akiko Kadohata
  • Takuya Iwamura

Summary

◆DIR analyzed the measures that health insurance associations and companies should implement as a means of responding to the desires of their employees to have children. Using up to 15 years of data from 445 health insurance associations that use DIR's core business system, we calculated the total fertility rates (TFR) of employees and dependents for each health insurance association, and explored the determinants of these rates. Names of individuals, associations, and companies remain anonymous.

◆The results showed that the TFR of employees tends to be higher in associations with higher average monthly earnings and a higher average age of women. Creating a work environment that allows women to build careers is also important to fulfill the wish to have children. By industry, those which often require work on holidays and nighttime work, such as the retail and transportation industries, may have a negative impact on the TFR. Companies should aim to establish a system that enables women in their child-rearing years to take on responsible work by subsidizing the fees for using daycare centers and babysitters and encouraging their spouses to share housework and childcare.

◆The TFR for dependents have been declining rapidly since FY2015, and this is especially true for married dependent women aged 30 and older. The fact that dependents have become a minority among childbearing women and have become more aware of their relative income gap with employees is thought to be a factor in their being less likely to have children. Support for maternity expenses and family allowances provided by health insurance associations and companies are seen as effective measures to make it easier for these households to have children. However, if the dependent spouse works part-time or otherwise, the family allowance for the spouse becomes a factor restraining the increase in household income. Companies should adopt measures to avoid hindering dependent spouses from working by shifting allowances for spouses to allowances for children or basic wages.

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