Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between socio-economic characteristics, fertility behavior, and working patterns (from before marriage to present) of women in Bangkok. Eight hundred ad three currently-married women, who married only once and have at least one child, were drawn from the sample of the survey of Womens Work and the Need for Child Care Among Prekindergarten in Bangkok Metropolitan Area. This survey was conducted by the Institute of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University in 1989-1990. The findings revealed that the majority of women worked before marriage but stopped after having children. Then next largest groups comprised those who worked continuously and who never worked. Almost all well-educated, professional women continued working in the same occupation. The husbands occupation, education, and income, and womens working duration, number of living children, average duration of maternal leave, and child caretakers were significantly correlated with womens working pattern at the 0.05 level. However, when the husbands income, education, and occupation, womens education and occupation, and number of living children were controlled for, it was found that the relationship between the independent variables and womens working pattern had changed as follows: the husbands occupation affected only women whose husbands had higher income; the husbands income affected women whose husband had education lower than college level; womens working duration had an effect on women of every educational level and every occupation; the husbands education affected only women whose husband did not work; the number of children affected only women whose husbands had medium and high income levels and women in sales occupation; the average duration of maternal leave affected only women whose husbands hand lower or medium incomes, and women who were in sales or never worked; the child caretaker did not have any effect only for women who never worked; and the womens duration of living in Bangkok and average child spacing had no relation with womens working patterns. The MCA results revealed that the following variables had a statistically significant relationship with womens working pattern; womens occupation, education, and working duration, child caretakers and especially the number of living children.