Gender role-set family orientations, and fertility intentions in Switzerland

This paper investigates women’s attitudes towards paid employment and family in relation to the share of paid and domestic workloads within a couple and in relation to the intention to have a child. We use longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel that questions both partners separately on family and work values, fertility intentions, and gender division of tasks. Our multilevel estimations confirm the important role of subjective evaluations of the couple’s roleset: being satisfied with the couple’s role set favors fertility intentions for women who are already mothers. However, for childless women, aspirations to economic independence and being employed have an independent and negative effect on fertility intentions.