Work-Family mantra successful! Highly educated women more inclined towards motherhood and bigger families

Back in the days, lower educational level had connection to lower levels of childlessness amongst women although a new study has contradicted that idea. According to data by Pew Research Center, women with advance degrees are more inclined towards motherhood compared to the past.

In the last two decades, the percentage of childless woman among the highly educated ones has gone down considerably. Currently 22% of women between the ages of 40 and 44 do not have children, whereas in 1994 the percentage had been 30. This fall in number is significantly seen in women with a Ph.D. or and M.D. when 35% of them had been childless in 1994 and as of now only 20% of such highly educated women are without child.

Even though a number of educated women in the US are taking decisions on having families, there are also shifts in the size of their respective families. 23% of women with postgraduate degrees aged from 40 to 44 have only one child as opposed to more compared to 28% in 1994.

There has been increase in the size of the family as well. This study also suggested that 6 out of every 10 women choose to have more than one child. 27% of the educated mothers between the ages 40 to 44 had three or more children in 2014, as opposed to the 22% in 1994.

The factors which influenced the average family size are societal, ethnic and demographic. It was found that 11% of Caucasian women and 10% of Asian women had 4 or more children. Other ethnicities had a different situation where 20% of the Hispanic women and 18% of African-American women had at least 4 children.

The study revealed that having a successful career along with a fulfilled family life is not mutually exclusive and mothers do find the manageable equilibrium to juggle both work and family life.

Additionally husbands are becoming more supportive and helping out with household activities and sharing responsibilities which makes the mothers return to their jobs sooner than before.

There are other demographic factors which must be considered as well such as the overall number of female postgraduates has gone up. In 1994, only 1/10^th of women had a least one master’s degree in comparison to 2014, when 14% of the US women had so.

An important addition though is that in spite of the recent differences, childlessness is still on the rise. Since the 1970s, there has been a stable increase in the average age at which women choose to have their first baby.

The researchers have used data provided by the US Census Bureau as well as census tabulations and have established that the end of a woman’s childbearing years start with the age of 40.

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Tasnuva Rahim

I have been writing ever since I can remember, but that is because school made me do so against my will. Today here I am, standing strong because my mentors could see my flair which had undoubtedly mirrored in my school papers and the essays that never failed to amaze them. The strength of my words, the power of my insight and creativity is something I cherish very closely and I hope that someday it will be worth more than it is now. It is their encouragement and the faith that I had in myself taken me so many places, brought in so many surprises that I am grateful for them each and every day. I have worked for Dhaka tribune, written travel blogs collected from the time when I was working for an inbound travel agency. I have covered stories on cultures and norms of our country for a local lifestyle magazine Ice Today magazine. As of now I’m working as a freelance content writer and loving every moment of it.