According to the Pew Research Center, motherhood and postgraduate education are clashing less in women, leading to a drop in highly educated women who remain childless in their mid-40s.
Today, 22 percent of women between the ages of 40 and 44 don't have children, a reduction from the 30 percent recorded in 1994. The decline is most dramatically observed in women with a Ph.D. or an M.D., a full 35 percent of which were childless back in 1994. However, that number has dropped to 20 percent now.
Aside from simply having children, highly educated women are also seen as having bigger families compared with the past. According to the study, 60 percent of women who have at least a master's degree are likely to have at least two children. Back in 1994, figures were at 51 percent. Specifically, those with two children rose four percentage points while those with three or more offspring have grown six percentage points.
Pew Research attributes the trend as likely being driven by changes in society and demographics, which lines up with the growing number of women achieving leadership and managerial positions. This also suggests that more and more women are taking on the challenge of striking balance between work and family.
This has led to the lowest level of childlessness in women aged 40 to 44 in the country in the last 10 years. Back in 1994, 18 percent of women who reached the end of their childbearing years had not had one child. In the mid-2000s, the number grew to 20 percent but declined in 2014 to 15 percent.
Though more and more educated women are embracing having bigger families, the general trend of lean toward smaller families remains. In 1976, an average woman in her early 40s would have already given birth to three children. By 2014, most families were two-children households.
The study used data from the June Supplements of the Current Population Survey from 1976 to 2014. A supplement is usually carried out every two years, resulting in a nationally representative sampling of the U.S. population that has not been institutionalized. While the study's overview and first section analyzes fertility and childlessness in women, the last section assesses mothers only, highlighting variations and trends in the number of children they've had during their lifetime.
A "mother" is technically defined in the study as a woman who has given birth to a child. However, it is recognized that woman who didn't bear their own children are mothers as well.
Photo: GSCSNJ | Flickr
