Career or child: is the neoliberal working women’s fertility on thin ice?

Women often face the consequential dilemma regarding their choice to invest in career or child. While neoliberalisation has empowered women to clone the aspirations of their male counterparts, the competitive landscape, limited availability of resources, and the inevitable gender bias render women with very limited choice. Women who focus on their families pay the motherhood penalty and settle for low-paying 'mother-friendly' jobs. On the other hand, women who focus on their careers often delay or forego motherhood. This delay leads to age-related fertility decline, and coupled with high occupational stress, there is a low success rate of fertility treatments as well. Women succumb by exiting their jobs yearning for a child. An unforeseen consequence of infertility is that it can disrupt the supply of future pool of human capital. Also, a lack of institutional support and the persistence of traditional gender role expectations reinforce women with children to opt out of the labour market. This marginalisation will, in turn, hinder the economic growth of a developing country like India. It is imperative for the government and organisations to create policies understanding the importance of reproductive health and family-planning, thereby facilitating women to effectively balance between career and child.