Attitudes towards parenthood are at the core of all economic and social problems raised by the decline in fertility rates and the ageing process of Europe’s population.
In this context, the question of the influence of labour market conditions on fertility choices and the question of the adequacy of public policies in order to facilitate the combination between employment and parenthood have to be raised.

These have been the central question of the MOCHO research project (Motherhood choices: The influence of employment conditions and of public policies ) during the last three years. The aim of the project was to study how the motherhood decision is affected by labour market conditions and how public policies can be designed in order to promote parenthood by dual career couples, which is becoming the normal way of life in the European Union’s member states.

To go beyond the issues raised within this project and to establish a general state of the art of where research stands in this domain as well as to broaden the perspective, a call for papers has proven an interesting method.