Productive and Reproductive Decisions in Turkey: The Role of Domestic Bargaining

This study analyzes domestic conflict caused by gainful employment of Turkish wives: whether it lowers fertility and what aspects of domestic power relationships affect fertility. The data were taken from the 1968 Survey of Family Structure and Population Issues done by Hacettepe University including 4500 households. The open birth interval was used as an inverse measure of recent fertility. Measures of relative power for the reproductive social and economic spheres and a scale for degree of domestic autonomy or the extent to which women were allowed to depart from Islamic norms in public were constructed. The hypotheses were: 1) the wifes domestic power should have a positive effect on the strength of the employment-fertility relationship; 2) high female autonomy should improve the responsiveness of fertility to employment i.e. working women with high autonomy should have lower recent fertility than nonworking women and those with low autonomy; 3) autonomy should have a larger effect on fertility than power. Using ordinary least squares regression model 1 verified that all demographic control variables were significant in the expected direction except husband present which effectively selected for more fertile migrant-worker couples. Model 2 showed that women employed outside the home had significantly longer open birth intervals by 5.39 months. With Models 3 4 and 5 the interaction of 2 of the 3 measures of wifes decision power reproductive and economic interacted significantly in the expected direction with employment status. Social power however had no significant effect on fertility. Model 6 showed that the interaction between autonomy and current employment was significant and stronger than the 3 power measures. Model 7 tested interactive effects of all relevant variables and found all pwere measures insignificant while autonomy remained significant. Possibly this implies that women who have power in the economic and reproductive spheres also have autonomy. Turkish spouses resolve conflicts by establishing gender-specific spheres of influence thus increasing autonomy rather than confronting each other on issues. Thus in Turkey role strain for women caused by combining outside work with motherhood lowers fertility if they have a degree of autonomy. If employment of women increases and traditional attitudes forbidding male participation in child care persist conflict may increase.