Late, but not too Late? Postponement of First Birth among Highly Educated US Women Born 1920-1985

• In Event: 3148 - Understanding Fertility across Time and Context

Abstract

Substantial increases in median age at first birth are well-documented for many countries and thought to be connected to reductions in fertility overall and specifically to the rise of low-low fertility countries in recent decades. Although in the US fertility was at or near replacement until very recently, and the median age at first birth was low in comparison to most European countries, highly educated US women have increasingly delayed childbirth to levels that are comparable to low-low fertility contexts. Using data drawn from the Fertility Supplement of the June CPS series (1979-2016) we examine median age at first birth, childlessness, and (near) completed fertility for women born between 1920 and 1990. We argue that the postponement-low fertility nexus is especially relevant for women who obtained education beyond college because the potential overlap of education completion and family formation in the life course is larger in this group. We show that highly educated women with postgraduate education delayed their first birth increasingly, reaching median ages at first birth of up to 33 for women born in the late nineteen-fifties and later. College graduates’ median age at first birth, in contrast, is about two-three years lower for most birth cohorts. Differentials in childlessness between college graduates and women with postgraduate education are present and largest the 1940s and 1950s birth cohorts. Late postponement among women with postgraduate education is linked to record childlessness of up to 33% among women born in the 1950s and a large decrease in the proportion of higher parity births in this cohort, Yet, childlessness differentials disappear for women with postgraduate education and college graduates born after 1970, suggesting changing relationships between postponement and completed fertility. Our findings also indicate diverging pathways into motherhood between black and white women, even among this most highly educated segment of the population.

Author

• Hannah Brueckner, New York University - Abu Dhabi Campus