Can Female Empowerment Help Reach Replacement Level in Egypt?

Sahar El-Sheneity, Cairo University

This paper investigates the relation between women’s empowerment and their fertility. Total number of children ever born for women with completed fertility is analyzed using the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey 2006. Focus is on women’s education and work as key sources of empowerment. Multinomial logit is used to study differentials of having two, three or more children. Results show that preference of having two or three children is almost the same across most respondents’ characteristics. Choices of having fewer than four children is related to having secondary education or higher. Respondent with low level of education and poor job characteristics have higher average number of children than those who have never worked with the same level of education. Reaching replacement level is not feasible at this stage since the preference for two or three children seems to be a personal choice that depends on context rather than measureable criteria.