Working for change: the effect of female labor force participation on fertility and gendered violence

Abstract

We exploit the dramatic fall in washing machine prices post trade reforms in the 1990’s in Mexico to estimate the causal effect of female labor force participation (FLFP) on fertility and gendered violence. We construct a panel of municipalities in Mexico and instrument FLFP with relative washing machine price, as these appliances have been found to increase FLFP by liberating women from domestic work, to study the effects of FLFP on overall fertility, age-specific fertility, fertility timing, and marital status at the time of birth as well as instances of fatal gendered violence. We find large effects of FLFP on both raising the average age of mothers, especially in the year of their first birth, and on lowering fertility rates. These effects are larger for women of lower socioeconomic status. We find no evidence of an effect on gendered violence, though we do find some evidence of increased violence against women of low socioeconomic status, as is consistent with a male backlash effect.