Working women, parity, and modern contraception methods

The role of women as wives and mothers taking care of husbands, children, and households is not easy. When women decide to work, improve their education by continuing their schooling, participate in community activities, or do other activities with the goal of self-actualization, this can ultimately lead to conflict between their maternal and nonmaternal roles. The presence of children is considered as a factor that influences women to do those activities. Consequently, it is thought that working wives may wish to limit giving birth by using contraceptives. This study uses National Social Economic Survey (SUSENAS) data from 2017 with an analysis unit of married women aged 15 to 49 years having the status of wife of household, and employs the multinomial regression method. Results showed that women play a dual role (a maternal and a nonmaternal role), and that they may feel that adding more children to their family may mean an increase in the opportunity cost; therefore, they choose to limit the number of children they have by using both long-term and short-term contraception methods. Among women with fewer live births, the presence of toddlers in the household is the most influencing factor for using long-term contraceptive methods. Among married women who had more than two children, older women are significantly more likely to use a long-term method than younger women.