Laporan Fertility At The Crossroad-Children Now, Later Or Never

Contribution and involvement of women in developing a country is indeed undeniable. With the implementation of proactive and progressive government policies, the women of this country are also the driving force and generators of national economic growth and population prosperity. The role of women is not only seen in managing household and family matters, even they are also play an important role in organisations and associations as well as be a contributor to the progress of the country. Knowledgeable and productive women act as a contributor to the development of the country, in addition to its role of forming a prosperous and quality family. With the increasing rate of labor force participation among women, to some extent it will affect the balance between family life and career among married working women. This situation is inevitable because women need to play a role as a wife, mother and even employee. Besides that, an increase in the rate of labor force participation among women causes the age of marriage is getting delayed and will indirectly have an impact to the fertility rate of the population in our country. Fertility rates are seen to continue to decline and approaching the level of replacement.

Generally, the majority of married couples have a desire to have children. However, not all have the same desire to have one. There are couple who wants to have a child now, some delay the time to have children, and even some do not want any child. In addition, working couples are more likely to practice family planning for birth spacing to ensure they can limit the number of children that would be born. There are also couples who plan to have smaller family size to provide a quality family life.

Therefore, it is hoped that the Fertility At The Crossroad: Children Now, Later or Never Studies was abled to clarify the factors that influence the decision of a working woman either in government or the private sector to have a child now, delay pregnancy or do not want to have a child. Hopefully, the resulting report can used in forming policies and programmes to help women in forming the family and also balancing the demands of career and family.