ABSTRACT
Two important phenomena characterizing developed societies in the twentieth century are a decline in marital fertility rates and a rise in the labor-force participation of married women. These persistent trends, combined with a recognition of the importance of the mother in child rearing, suggest the possibility that one means of accelerating the adoption of goals leading to smaller family size in less developed countries might be to encourage the employment of women. Such a policy prescription, however, presupposes that the inverse association between female employment and fertility in industrial nations implies a causal relationship and that there exists a strong conflict between the economic employment of women and child rearing within less developed countries. To evaluate such a policy in the context of a developing country therefore requires extreme care.
