Number of Children Expected in Relation to Non-Familial Activities of the Wife

U NTIL recently the studies in differential have been largely descriptions of variations in among significant groups in the population. More recently the emphasis has been upon the quest for predictively useful social and psychological factors affecting family size. To date only socio-economic factors such as education, occupation, income and religion have proved useful predictors.3 At present however, it is being noted that changes are taking place in the traditionally observed inverse relationship of these socio-economic variables and fertility. These recent findings emphasize the importance of understanding not only the dynamics of this relationship but of discovering other variables that in the future may be more crucial in the prediction of behavior. Thus emphasis has shifted toward the development of more inclusive hypotheses that may lead to a better understanding of differentials. This paper reports on an attempt to test one of these more inclusive hypotheses as suggested by Ronald Freedman. The general hypothesis is that fertility differences are related to differences in the division of labor between the family and other social institutions.4 This hypothesis is based upon