Half of the women who had children in the last 14 years had to choose between motherhood and career, in part due to lack of support for working mothers, a major study has found.

The result is that Malta’s already low fertility rate has continued to decline, to just 1.4 children per female.

In contrast to other European countries, where the relationship between female employment and having children is consistently positive, Malta scores a “scary” low on both.

And if drastic changes are not made, the population rate could be halved in 45 years’ time. The alarm needs to be raised, said one of the authors of the study, Anna Borg from the University’s Centre for Labour Studies.

“It would be expected that if women are not working, they are busy producing babies, but that is not the case,” Dr Borg said.

She explained that over the years, female participation in the labour market started to increase but it came at a cost – fertility continued to decline.

The study, The Price of Motherhood, examined the link between female participation in the labour market and its impact on fertility. It points to the lack of compatibility between paid work and childbearing due to insufficient support.

There is, doubtless, a trade-off between having a career and children, the study shows. In those European countries that have removed the hurdles for mothers to work, they have both a high employment rate and high fertility, meaning they do not have to choose between a career and children.

But Malta is “20 years backwards”, said co-author Clyde Caruana, National Statistics Office senior statistician. The study, also by Manwel Debono, Centre for Labour Studies director, examined data on more than 43,000 mothers. These consisted of 8,866 career mothers, in employment with the same employer; 21,000 drifting mothers, who moved in and out of employment in that period; and 13,000 non-working mothers, who do not have an employment history. Between them, they had 62,000 children.

The majority of women – 70 per cent – entered the labour market at some point in time and, therefore, the message is that they are willing to work. The problem is they have to make a choice, and family supporting structures are insufficient.

The issue was not attracting women into the labour market but a question of retention, the authors said. Flexibility is clearly an important factor in determining the degree of emancipation and the amount of children women have.

While the investment in education is there, the authors questioned whether it was generating the expected rate of return. The study shows female professionals dedicate only 50 per cent of their potential time to work, which is not enough, considering the investment in them.

“We are investing in women’s education, which is good, but if we want it to continue paying off, we have to ensure they find the support structures to enable them to have the career and the children they want. At the moment, it seems it is either one, or the other!” The lack of choice emerges clearly from the fact that by the time they have their baby, 80 per cent of the drifters have already quit their jobs, acknowledging they cannot have both. Men, on the other hand, do not face that trade-off.

The authors suggest that a change in men’s mentality towards a woman’s role in the house, school hours that are more compatible with work, and rapid investment in formal childcare could help reverse the trend.

The study confirms that women employed by the government, which offers more family-friendly measures, have more children than those who work in manufacturing, for example. It is clear they are having more babies where there is flexibility, while most drifters, 90 per cent, work in a less generous private sector.

These trends also emerge in the health, education and financial services fields – in the latter case because women normally occupy high positions and have more leverage to negotiate, plus the opportunity cost of being out of the labour market is high since they are high earners.