How the Modern Employment Environment Shapes Unmarried Professional Women’s Attitudes toward Marriage and Childbirth
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/wxts2398Keywords:
workplace, anticipatory motherhood wage penalty, unmarried professional women.Abstract
Scholars have previously focused on measuring actual marital and fertility behaviors but failed to identify the gap between actual behaviors and intentions for marriage and childbearing. This study adopted semi-structured interviews with unmarried professional women and aimed at finding the hidden rationale under their marital and fertility decisions in the Chinese context. Findings indicate that both objective limitations and ideological transformation can be attributed to low marital and fertility desires, which provides guidelines for the workplace and government to enact separate and more effective policies.
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