The End of an Era: The Vanishing Negative Effect of Women's Employment on Fertility

This paper examines whether women's employment in the 21st century remains a barrier to family formation, as it was in the 1980s and 1990s, or—similar to men's—it has become a prerequisite for childbearing. We address this question through a systematic quantitative review (meta-analysis) of empirical studies conducted in Europe, North America, and Australia. We selected 94 studies published between 1990 and 2023 (N = 572 effect sizes). Our analysis uncovers a fundamental shift in the relationship between women's employment and fertility. What was once a strongly negative association has become statistically insignificant in the 2000s and 2010s—and even turned positive in the Nordic countries, parts of Western Europe (France, Belgium, and the Netherlands), and Central and Eastern Europe. This shift is evident both among childless women and mothers and has occurred across all analyzed country clusters, except for the German/Southern European group, where the relationship has remained negative. These findings challenge longstanding assumptions about work–family trade-offs and suggest a reconfiguration of the economic and social conditions underpinning fertility decisions in contemporary high-income societies. The paper calls for a reconceptualization of the employment–fertility relationship and development of a new theoretical framework that better captures these evolving dynamics in contemporary high-income societies.