Abstract: Previous Chinese literature on women’s hazards of giving births focused on the impacts of policies or marital and childbearing histories. Under low fertility regime, gender and intergenerational relations rather than policy interventions exert more influence on Chinese women’s childbearing behaviors. Under the framework of New Home Economics and gender equity theory, and gender and development approach regarding fertility, this study discusses about how Chinese women’s economic activities and changes in gender relations might affect women’s hazards of entering parenthood. Capitalizing on data from a longitudinal survey, this article uses event history analysis to test how housework division and wives’ economic activities influence the hazards of giving first births. The results suggest that women earning higher income tend to have lower hazards of giving first births. Coresiding with women’s mothers-in-law increases the hazards of entering parenthood. Also, husbands’ greater involvement in housework is related to higher hazards of giving first births, and this relationship is stronger in households that can hardly get help from womens mothers-in-law.

Keywords: Women's Economic Activities, Gender Relations, Division of Household Labor, Hazards of Giving First Births

摘要： 有关中国妇女生育风险的现有研究主要关注宏观政策因素和个人婚育史的影响。随着我国总和生育率长期稳定在低水平，微观层面的个人、家庭因素日益成为决定女性生育行为的主要因素。文章采取跨学科视角，从社会学、经济学和人口学的不同角度出发，探讨了当代中国女性的经济行为、家庭中的性别关系和家务分工、照料需求的差异与女性初育风险的关系，提出了具体的研究假设，并使用“中国健康与营养调查”数据，采用事件史分析方法对研究假设进行检验。分析结果显示，女性的收入越高，初育风险越低，而与婆婆同住则和较高的初育风险相关。同时，丈夫分担家务劳动，可以明显提高女性的初育风险。进一步的研究显示，丈夫家务劳动参与的作用在难以获得婆婆家务帮助的情况下更加明显。

关键词: 女性经济行为, 家庭性别关系, 家务分工, 初育风险