Image: Hey Paul Studios It's Halloween this week so let's kick off the scary season with the terrifying tale many a career woman fears and every Daily Mail writer warns ladies about: 'Help! I forgot to have children!' No, no, no childless by choice people out there, you did not decide that children weren't for you, allow us to give you the benefit of the doubt and portray you as a tragic and absent minded woman so focused on that promotion you forgot that your little eggs were withering away inside your screaming ovaries. Probably. It is a popular theme to run a story on a woman - who does not necessarily need to be in her 'Autumn' years - regretting her unoccupied womb. Usually the woman is professionally successful and it is a lesson to us all with an ounce of ambition. However according to a new study it is the high fliers who have more children.
The Economic Journal has published a study that suggests the idea of the professional woman climbs the career ladder at the cost of her fertility is no longer so true. There appears to have been a significant increase in the fertility rates of highly educated women over the last thirty years.
Economists Moshe Hazan and Hosny Zoabi found from their research that fertility rates among college educated American women have largely stagnated over time, whereas fertility rates have risen by over 50% in women with advanced degrees.
The economists said of their research: "The relationship between fertility and women's education in the US has recently become U-shaped." They believe the change is linked to the huge gap in inequality gap, Hazan said:"I looked around at friends in Israel and the US and I noticed those who juggle careers, work very hard and earn enough money seem to have more kids...Then you go through the data and you find it is true."
Economists Moshe Hazan and Hosny Zoabi found from their research that fertility rates among college educated American women have largely stagnated over time, whereas fertility rates have risen by over 50% in women with advanced degrees.
The economists said of their research: "The relationship between fertility and women's education in the US has recently become U-shaped." They believe the change is linked to the huge gap in inequality gap, Hazan said:"I looked around at friends in Israel and the US and I noticed those who juggle careers, work very hard and earn enough money seem to have more kids...Then you go through the data and you find it is true."
| This is unsurprising. If you have a career you have a stability that other women don't have. Financial stability means you can afford assistance - whether or not you have a supportive extended family nearby. You can possibly even afford more leisure time with your children if you have domestic help. | Of course whether or not women choose to have children is 100% none of our business. |
One of the reasons cited as to why these 'high flying' women are able to have more children (other than not having to necessarily worry over accessible and affordable childcare) was advances in "assisted reproductive technology". While it's interesting to see companies such as Apple see these well educated women as valuable potential employees that they could attract by offering egg freezing cover (a process that's still a little iffy, your chances of pregnancy are still below 50%).
What was not addressed is why we are so interested in whether or not women have children and what kind. We care what kind because if a well educated woman has a child, the child is more likely to be well educated. Meaning we may have a more highly educated generation coming up.
We also care because the woman who doesn't have children is an anomaly, asJulia Stephenson writes: "I'm asked why I don't have children... The enquiries I receive are always polite, and to me seem more like curiosity than criticism. But it's at times like these that I do feel a bit of an oddity, and it's easy to see how this feeling - of being out of sync, excluded - could slip into self-pity. We live in a child-centric society, one filled with Mumsnet and mumpreneurs, where motherhood has become shorthand for fulfilment." Scroll down for comments implying women who choose not to have children are selfish.
Of course whether or not women choose to have children is 100% none of our business. However it is our business if lack of affordable childcare is causing people to put off having the children they would like. The fact that this change in types of women having children is being put down to inequality should ring alarm bells.
Squeamish Kate
What was not addressed is why we are so interested in whether or not women have children and what kind. We care what kind because if a well educated woman has a child, the child is more likely to be well educated. Meaning we may have a more highly educated generation coming up.
We also care because the woman who doesn't have children is an anomaly, asJulia Stephenson writes: "I'm asked why I don't have children... The enquiries I receive are always polite, and to me seem more like curiosity than criticism. But it's at times like these that I do feel a bit of an oddity, and it's easy to see how this feeling - of being out of sync, excluded - could slip into self-pity. We live in a child-centric society, one filled with Mumsnet and mumpreneurs, where motherhood has become shorthand for fulfilment." Scroll down for comments implying women who choose not to have children are selfish.
Of course whether or not women choose to have children is 100% none of our business. However it is our business if lack of affordable childcare is causing people to put off having the children they would like. The fact that this change in types of women having children is being put down to inequality should ring alarm bells.
Squeamish Kate
RSS Feed