Journal of Economic Impact DO EMPLOYED FEMALES PROVIDE BETTER CARE TO THEIR CHILDREN? THE CASE OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH CARE IN PAKISTAN

The role of women as mothers is essential because they look after their children round the clock, and their positive attitude influences their children's behavior. Mothers' participation in the labor force also increases family income and influences both the health and education of children. This research aims to analyze the females' participation in the labor force and their children's care in Pakistan. The study investigates the relationship between females' employment and their time allocation to activities related to child care. Primary data collected through a survey is used to compute the data on required variables. Activities related to child care, such as activities that influence a child's education and health, are examined. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model was used to check the relationship between females' employment, their children's education, and health care. The result shows a negative impact of females' age on child care. At the same time, there is a positive relationship between females' age square, education, family size, and child care. The assets of the family have a positive impact on child care, while the variable is statistically significant in assets quintiles one and two. Result also highlights that female belonging to urban areas has a positive influence on child care. Finally, female employment negatively affects child employment. The major conclusion is that the female's age and employment lead to a decrease the child care. However, females' education, family size, and assets have a positive influence on child care. It is suggested that government should establish lower cost care centers for increasing the participation rate of females in the labor market. Moreover, mothers should manage their time efficiently to ensure the better care of their children by avoiding extra personal activities. Finally, mothers should better monitor their children by providing the best quality to their children, and focus should be made on females' education for the better care of children.


INTRODUCTION
Determining the standard of living, dependency ratio, and saving patterns among households led to the essential need to observe women's decisions regarding participation in the labor market. Pakistan is a populous country where the number of women is about half of country's population. Women indulge in unpaid activities at home, increasing their participation daily in the labor market. The components are very complicated in nature that determine the behavior of women's employment. Women's decision to work at an individual level depends on the possibility of job opportunities, skills, and experiences. Female labor force participation is actually determined by the factors that are evocative of economic, social, and demographic aspects that are under consideration. There is some push and pull factors that induce the role of women in the labor market. The main forcing factor behind women's active role in the labor market is financial pressure on them by their families. Especially if the country is observed by different income groups, females belonging to lower income families most probably find jobs in the labor market. The families earning a higher level of income are most probably reducing the dependency on income earned by women's participation in the labor market. The pull factors are such attributes that create demand for more labor and include the level of education, training, and experience, so women's participation is enhanced by attractive job opportunities and higher pay levels. Neoclassical economists consider education to be one of the important factors in pushing women toward the labor market. There exists a positive relationship between education level and women's participation in the labor market (Becker, 1965). Moreover, socio-economic factors such as education might make more opportunities available to them. Human capital investments such as experience and on-the-job training enhance the efficiency of labor, which results in higher labor earnings (Mincer and Polachek, 1974).
Pakistan is a developing country where both males and females are working together, and their mutual contribution is necessary for the progress of the country because both consider the pillars of growth and development. Pakistani women are playing their role both as mothers and working women. The parents look after their children round the clock, and this positively affects their children's behavior. This strong relationship between parents and children results in successful and well-adjusted personalities of their children (Aeri and Jain, 2010). The supply of labor in the economy can be estimated from the labor force participation rate; secondly, this rate shows the participation of the population in different sectors of the economy. Age-specific labor force participation rate indicates how much males and females age groups participate in the labor market. The age group among males from 35 to 44 years is participating high from 2012 to 2015, while among females, the age group from 40 years to 49 years is participating high during this time period. The lower level of labor force participation in early age groups indicates a higher level of education, while in older age, the participation rate both in males and females seems to increase, but the overall participation rate among males is high in all age groups as compared to females. The ratio of males in different age groups is almost 100%, while females' participation is not even above 40 % in all age groups in developing countries due to fewer job opportunities, lack of family cooperation, gender discrimination, and above all lack of suitable policies formulated by the Government. Women play a positive role in their family, and their activities influence the health and betterment of all family members. As working ladies or household ladies, women have an important position in their families. Activities carried out by women such as breastfeeding, preparing food, caretaking for their family, and finding out curative medical care is essential for children's healthy growth. Women play their role by earning income, whether in household farms or businesses or as wage employees. A crucial case is when children are involved in unpaid activities or act as a substitute to look after their younger siblings when one of their parents is working in the labor market (Cigno and Furio, 2005). A changing pattern in labor force supply affects children's educational results especially due to changes in family income. There are two aspects, if the mother's working Time substitutes for children's time in doing activities related to the household, it will result in a downward pattern in the educational achievements of her children, but if at the time of mother's work, children attend a school where both educational and health care facilities are provided at that time, they are in a better position prior the employment of their mothers. Working women may have more opportunities to allocate their children's welfare and health care resources. The present research shows that women's financial resources positively affect their children's schooling. Mother's priority is to invest more in their children's health and education than their fathers (Quisumbing and Maluccio, 2003). The decision regarding working out or staying at home is very hard for a woman because she has to keep all things in her mind making a decision, whether she is working to earn or for her fame. She has to compare all the consequences based on her working out; either her children's education or care is affected, or she is successful in proving both by employment. If such is the case, she should prefer working to earn to provide financial assistance to her family. Sometimes the woman is forced by her husband to do a job that becomes a burden for her in the long run because she feels herself a machine of earning and having no relaxation while some women have their own choice of employment. Women's employment does not matter if they pay full attention to their children, show genuine love for their families, and pay more attention to children. Some research work shows that the early age of children requires more attention from their parents, especially from their mothers, if the mother is not able to pay proper attention to her children.
Research and experiments show that the score gained by children below three years is higher for mothers staying at home compared to those employing women. It is necessary for the mother to give proper attention and care to her children at an early age, whatever is working. How can she be equal to women staying at home giving full time and attention to their children, and how can a hired woman be the best substitute for a mother? It is a long discussion regarding women's employment and staying at home. Results vary from country to country depending upon the available resources and financial assistance. A number of studies and research have been done on this issue. The aim of this study is to show the impact of females' employment on their children's education and health care with regard to Pakistan. When economists talk about human capital, they focus on education. Working women's participation in the labor market affects the children's welfare or not, and it totally depends upon the time allocated for child care in case of education. Educated mothers are more conscious about their children's education; they give special time to their children. How much time do working women allocate for their children's education by participating in activities like teaching and training children, accompanying them to places such as school, sports, and lessons (Abbas and walker, 1986). Child care is essential for the development of human capital. One of the most highlighted problems is the time allocated by working mothers for their children's care, both in case of children's education and health care; if time allocated for children's education is high, then children's education will be proper. There is another issue regarding the financial assets of a family. If children belong to rich families, their mother's need to participate in the labor market will be lower, and they will get more time spent with their mothers. The research problem of the study is introduced and described by the theoretical framework (Swanson and Chermack, 2013). In this study, the theoretical framework is derived from two thoughts of school, first focusing on the economics of household decision-making in developing countries and second describing the women's attitude regarding labor force participation and child care decisions in industrialized countries. In developing countries, the utility-maximizing model of household behavior has been widely used. The framework focuses on the mother's preference regarding her employment category as a function of individual and household characteristics, and on the other hand, the market wage is offered for that employment. A mother's decision regarding employment comes from a family utility function that includes children's well-being and family consumption. The constraint to be faced by the mother during making choices are household resources and her own time, while the presence of younger children in the family is an additional constraint. It is assumed that women perform multiple roles in urban areas while men specialize in market work. Thus, the mother must make the decision regarding child care and its role in the labor market. The presence of family members that behave to attempt income earning responsibilities, household production roles, and childcare activities determines the behavior of mothers. The implication of this theoretical framework is focusing on mothers' decisions regarding labor supply and on the child care demand function. The decisions regarding participation in the labor supply and child care are generally affected by the presence of caregivers in the family. The study indicates that the presence of family caregivers like elderly females and teenage daughter's best substitute the mothers' time allocated for labor supply. The female labor force supply model indicates that the mother's participation in the labor market is affected by market wage and seems to increase the opportunity cost of the mother's time at home. While on the other hand, family financial resources lower the probability of labor force employment because the family can afford more leisure time. The theory well explains the child care demand function, which describes the behavior of mothers' employment vary as their child ages increase because child caregivers reduce as child's age increases and mothers have time to participate in the labor market. The presence of non-parental childcare in the family will increase the role of mothers in the labor market; if non-parental childcare is not available, then women with higher family income will hire caretakers for their children. The results indicate that women's resources are often more likely to be allocated to children's needs than men's (Connelly et al., 1996). The model explains the behavior of women's employment, time allocation for work, and child care. The basic aim of working women is to maximize their objective function by properly allocating their time. The working mothers rearrange their activities so on to less time allocated for child care as compared to working hours just to increase their financial freedom. The activities related to child care and child education vary, and time spent on these activities determines the role of parents. Less time spent to spend for cooking, grocery shopping and purchasing fresh food to be consumed, greater use of preserved food ready-to-eat increases, which results in a rise in obesity (Becker, 1991). The time allocated for work as much as increases, lesser time mothers have for their children's care, both in education and health. The model does not measure how parents' employment affects their time for two reasons; the first one is that previous literature does not relate parents' working hours and childhood obesity (Phipps et al., 2006). Secondly, parents' employment is not sufficiently predicted by monthly unemployment (Stock and Yogo, 2005). The model explains the phenomenon that household utility results find out from consumption and the child's human capital. The productivity of investment in human capital is affected by individual characteristics that include the education of parents, family demographics, occupation, or personal ability, so the final decision regarding child labor and schooling depends on the tradeoff between the value of child labor and investment in human capital. The theories well mention that mothers who have higher level family incomes have the possibility to provide formal child care to their children. The increase in the mother's wage represents a positive income effect, and the increase in the value of the mother's time will both result in enhancing the demand for nonparental child care. Women's employment level increases as family total income increases, while women's financial resources are more likely to be considered to meet children's needs than men's financial resources. The level of non-parental child care increases as the number of younger children in the home rises; similarly, formal child care requirements vary across metropolitan areas (Kruger, 2007). The factors that affect the development of three-year-old children and enhance obesity. The six factors significantly influence the development of obese three years old children. Mantel Haenszel method that involves the mother's job, limited lifetime outdoors and variation in eating habits describe the factors that cause obesity among youngers (Takahashi et al., 1999). The overweight among children in US by sex, age group, and race is found. The trend of obesity among children in US is continuing to increase, especially among Mexican Americans and Black youngers (Ogden et al., 2002). The rising trends of overweight in America are found due to high consumption of prepared food and due to less attention of working mothers towards household activities. This results in the increasing trend toward obesity among Americans (Cutler et al., 2003). The social and environmental factors result in obesity. Two approaches are introduced at a time, problem-oriented research paradigm and solution oriented paradigm in order to minimize obesity over Time (Robinson and Siarand, 2005). A relationship between overweight and a variety of diseases and chronic conditions in children is established. For this purpose, a medical expenditure panel survey is analyzed to link the children's obesity with economic demographic, family and other characteristics. A link between the children's overweight with variations in lifestyle and eating habits is found (Johnson et al., 2006). A rise in a mother's work intensity is associated with an increase in the chances of a child's ignorance regarding their health and education. The high intensity of working mothers results in the ignorance of mothers toward child care, which results in a higher probability of child obesity (Chia, 2008). The prevalence of obesity influences both developed and developing countries for all socio-economic groups regardless of age and gender. The ratio of obesity among school-going children is increasing day by day due to factors involving family setup and socio-economic factors. Multiple determinants like biological influences, parents working hours and social factors affect child obesity to a greater extent (Kosti and Panagiotakot, 2008). The alarming situation of obesity leads to several diseases like diabetes, cancers, etc. Excess body weight is associated with a negative impact on longevity, quality of life and productivity. Obesity is an obstacle to population health in developed and developing countries (Wang et al., 2012). The time working mothers spend on different household activities is checked by day of the week, whether other family members or partners are present in the household. Working mothers spend fewer minutes taking care of their children and related activities, which increases childhood obesity (Cawley and Liu, 2012). UNESCO conducts a cross-national study on the main problem of integrating early child care and education and essential aspects due to which poor families are behind the progress. Family proper planning, and resource management reduces inequality among poor and wealthy families regarding child care and education (Kaga and Barnett, 2012). The more work mothers spend on the job, the less time for doing other activities that promote child health and care. A mother's employment affects children's health by factors affecting both household activities and working hours (Anderson, 2012). The mother's education has a stronger impact on children's early schooling and health care than the father's. Parent income, education, and family assets influence the output regarding children's schooling and health care; this variation is more affected by paternal resources than maternal resources. There is a great impact on daughters' education compared to sons because daughters are ignored in many areas and sons are considered more valuable (Chevalier, 2013). The children's well-being increases in the early years when they are cared for properly by their mothers, while later on, their parent's financial support enhances their welfare (Heinrich, 2014). As mother's employment increases, their children spend more time in school and increase their grade progress. On the other hand, mothers' employment enhances their power regarding decision-making against the welfare of their children due to higher income levels and self-confidence (Afridi et al., 2016). Ravazzini (2018) conducted a research on the participation decision in the labour market and the intensity of participation in France. Empirical results of difference-in-differences regressions show that mothers living in cantons worked at higher percentage rates and expanded their childcare services more than the national average. Bongaarts et al. (2019) examined the association between women's employment and having children at home in 58 countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, the author assesses tendencies over recent decades in an association between employment and childbearing and differences in this relationship by mother's occupation. The study results show a negative association between women's employment and having children at home; this relationship differs substantially by world region, age of child, and mother's occupation. Furthermore, In Italy, survey data indicates that the division of childcare time based on working arrangements comprising both men and women dedicating less time to childcare if they endure working outside the home (Del Boca et al., 2020). Zamaro and Prados (2021) use data from a nationally representative sample of the United States and show how parents manage this crisis regarding childcare provision, employment, working arrangements, and psychological distress levels. The result shows that females have carried a heavier load than males while providing childcare during the COVID-19 crisis, even while still working. Mothers' present employed state of affairs seems to have little effect on childcare provision. This childcare division is linked with a decrease in working hours and an augmented chance of transitioning out of employment for employed mothers.
The objective of the current study about the child care is to determine whether employed females provide better care to their children or not. How does a relationship exist between female workers' employment and their time investment in child care? The study estimates the impact of household and socioeconomic characteristics of working females on their children's care. This study focuses on child care both in child education and child health because human capital development requires both the welfare of children. The study's research is that working females play a role in determining the proper time for children's education and health care. This study will be helpful for researchers who want to research in the field of child care. It is a primary databased study that consists of background, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.

METHODOLOGY
Primary data was collected for this study from entire Pakistan. The total number of observations used for the analysis is 6924. The behavior of employed mothers is checked for their child care, and activities related to child care, such as activities that impact a child's education and health, are examined. The model of child care is the combination of two dependent variables such as child education and child health. For this purpose, the ordinary least squares regression model is used to estimate the relationship between child care with independent variables of female characteristics, family size, family assets quintiles and region. The description of variables used in the equation in given in Table 1. CHCT = 0 + β1MAGE + β2MAGSQ + β3MEDGRI+ β4MEDGDII + β5MEDGDIII + β6MEMP + β7FSIZE + β8ASTQI+ β9ASTQII + β10ASTQ III + β11ASTQIV + β12URBN + ui (1)

Description of Variables Dependent variable:
Child care is a dependent variable which is determined by child health and child education. We have combined the total minutes of females having children that they utilize in education and health-related care of their children.  Years of schooling: 1 for having education, 0 for having no education Primary to middle: 1 for mother having education primary to middle, 0 for having no education from primary to middle Matric to intermediate: 1 for mother having education from matric to intermediate , 0 for having no education from matric to intermediate Degree to master: 1 for mother having education from degree to master, 0 for having no education from degree to master Mother Employment(MEMP) Mother employment -1 working -0 not working. Dummy variable: 1 if female resides in an urban areas and -0 otherwise.

Independent Variables
Independent variables include mother age, mother agesquare, education level of the mother, mother employment, family size and assets which family has, and category family belonging to rural or urban areas. Mother education: Mother education taken under observation is divided into three categories; mother's education lying between primary to the middle are assigned grade one, between middle to matric and matric to intermediate are assigned grade two and three while women having education level between inter to degree and above degree level are assigned grade four. It is expected that educated mothers in the household activities and their decision-making regarding resource allocation towards children and their human capital is stronger than their husbands. Mother employment: Mother employment affects the children's well-being both in health and education. In case of Pakistan, working women belonging to poorer families usually involve children in work with them. This variable is used as a dummy variable.
Mother age: Mother's age increases the probability of schooling because as age, skill, and experience increase the possibility of mothers going to school increases, and income earned by mothers on the other hand is spent on children's welfare.
Mother age square: One of the determinants of child care is the mother's age square. It is used to check the accurate relationship between the mother's age square and child care. This is the continuous variable.
Family size: The total member of a family affects the child care. If an elder member is present in the family, he/she will provide younger care while providing sufficient time for mothers to participate in the labor market. Secondly, a family having more income earners will give better education and health facilities to their children. The total number of family workers is used in this study, and it's a continuous variable. Family assets: The family's total assets determine the level of education and health facilities for the family's children. Due to increased family assets, females enjoy leisure, and these females have much time to spend with their children. Rural or urban areas: Women in rural areas generally have lower level of education and their jobs are not much high income. While in urban areas, women are highly educated and get high-income jobs, so they give much attention to their children's care. This variable is used as a dummy in this study.  Note: *** and * shows that results are significant at the 1 and 10 percent, respectively.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results in Table 3 represent the child care influenced by mother's employment, mother's characteristics, family size, family assets, and area to which female belongs. The values of coefficients of individual variables explain how much increase or decrease in a variable affects the dependent variable child care. The coefficient of the variable female's age is negative and statistically significant. While the variable age-square increases the child care, the variable is statistically significant.
The coefficient values of education from grade one to third are positive and statistically significant. This shows that child care increases due to an increase in female's education level. The coefficient of the variable employment level of females measured by variable work is negative and statistically significant. The result shows that the variable family size increases child care. The family's assets positively impact child care, while the variable is statistically significant in assets quintiles one and two. Females belonging to urban areas positively impact child care while the variable is statistically insignificant. Female labor force participation has increased over time in Pakistan. This study investigates how female employment is related to child care in developing countries like Pakistan. As the employment level of females increases in Pakistan, it affects both the health and education of children; on the one hand, child obesity among children under 18 years of age is increasing. The participation of mothers in the labor force market has an impact on child's schooling and education too, which results in affecting child care overall. Household resources increase the chances of the child to get an education to enhance as well (Duraisamy, 1992). In reality, educated mothers enjoy more bargaining power than their husbands in assuring more education facilities for their children. The impact of a mother's employment is negative on girls' education in poor families due to the increasing role of mothers in the labor market, which leads to an increased burden on young girls to look after their younger siblings (Lokshin et al., 2000). Women's employment increase in the labor market leads to an increase in the enrollments of boys in schools compared to girls. The higher cost of childcare centers also puts the burden on younger girls to look after their siblings for the active participation of their mothers in the labor market. As household resources increase, more resources can be used as a substitute to maintain child care. In poor families where the mother's work is not increasing financial resources as much burden on young girls increases, it leads to lower the girl's chances to avail high education. This results in decreasing girls' enrollment in schools and describes a negative association of mothers' work and child schooling, especially for girls.
The study results indicate that mother's employment has a negative relationship with child care as mother's employment increases, child care decreases, which is statistically significant. The female's age has a negative influence on child care. Family size and assets result into high child care. The impact of mothers' employment on child care is also negative due to decreasing time of mothers for their children's care and preparing food for their children. The level of education is positively related to child care. It shows the higher importance of female education for better child care.

CONCLUSIONS
This research analyzes the female's participation in the labor force, and their children's care in Pakistan. Activities related to child care, such as activities that have an influence on a child's education and health, are examined. OLS technique was used to check the relationship between female employment, their children's education and health care. The study results shows that the age of female and employment has a negative impact on child care. A positive relationship is found between females' age square, education, family size and child care. The assets of the family have a positive impact on child care, while the variable is statistically significant in assets quintile one and two. Result also shows that female belonging to urban areas has a positive influence on child care. The major conclusion is that the female's age and employment lead to a decrease the child care. The study suggests that urbanization is associated with the single family concept that results in limiting the role of caregivers like grandparents or other relatives living in the household. The role of grandparents is very important in increasing the mother's participation in the labor market. Lower-cost care center facilities also increase mothers' role in the labor force market and lower the impact on child health and education. Working mothers have less time to spend with their children, so they should make their time qualitative to ensure their children's better care and health by avoiding extra personal activities that hinder their children's development. Lack of supervision and monitoring of children results in lower child care. That's why working mothers should better monitor their children by providing the best quality time or the best substitute. On the other hand, they should encourage their children for their performance to get better results. Female workers should be highly qualified so that they can provide better care to their children.