The Access to Home-based Work Gained During Covid-19 Pandemic and Changes in Fertility Intentions Among Men and Women

Anna Kurowska , Univeristy of Warsaw
Anna Matysiak , University of Warsaw
Beata Osiewalska , University of Warsaw (1); Cracow University of Economics (2)

We investigate whether the access to home-based work (HBW), gained during the COVID-19 pandemic, is related to changes (both positive and negative) in fertility intentions of women and men, accounting for a set of other sudden and unexpected changes which affected families in the meantime (e.g. related to work conditions, earnings, availability of external childcare, health, relations between partners). We also look at the role of gender and socio-economic characteristics of the respondent (and his/her family) as moderating factors for this relationship. Our study is conducted for Poland, but by the time of the EPC it will likely be conducted for five other countries (Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the US) as well, using a unique large-scale representative data from Familydemic Survey (conducted in June 2021). Our preliminary results prove the polarization of the role of pandemic-related access to HBW for fertility intentions. While for men, HBW-access is related to a lower probability of increase in childbearing intentions, for women it correlates to both increased and decreased fertility intentions. We further show that education and financial situation are key factors that moderate this latter relationship. We confirm that gaining access to HBW is related to lower chances of the decrease in fertility intentions among respondents with low assessment of their financial situation as compared to those who are financially better-off, and that the decrease in fertility intentions related to HBW is lower among highly educated than among lower and medium educated women.

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 Presented in Session 19. Flash Session: Fertility and the COVID-19 Pandemic