Delayer Boom!

Today’s Census headline tells us there’s a “delayer boom” underway, as more educated women have children later. This is not a surprise here! … They conclude that women with a college degree or more will end up with around 1.7 kids, as opposed to women with less than a high school degree, with 2.5 kids. But increasing numbers of the later moms are still having kids in the 35-44 range – and in increasing numbers every year (see story on the 2009 data below) — so the 1.7 is not great data. And of course none of this data includes adopted children. Stay tuned!

A Dose of Pro-Natalism for Mother’s Day: What’s Up with That?

Pronatalism (basically, promoting more births) serves a variety of purposes, which you may variously like or not – but be on the look out in the coming months for texts that claim to be pushing babies on you for your benefit. There may be other logics at work and groups seeking to benefit as well.

Fertility Up, among women 40+

If, when the recession ends, a resurgence in births follows, it could be made all the more strong by the pent up demand of women who’ve delayed. Which could mean an even greater rise in births to women 40+.

Tighter Belts, Later Bumps

a href=”http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gregory-birthrate-20110109,0,2745694.story”>Here’s a link to my op-ed today in the LA Times.

Fair Pay, Fertile Future

But the two kinds of “women’s work” — the labor done outside the home (for 23 percent less pay than for men), and the bearing and rearing of the citizenry done at home (for nothing) — are entirely interdependent. Failure to pass the PFA will give women yet another reason to have fewer kids.

NURTURE: Radical Images, At Last!

The new show NURTURE: Stories of New Midlife Mothers, which pairs great images with the first-person stories of how those families were formed.

Pay for Delay

In the US, delay of family is a common means of raising income – so as to have more to raise kids on when they do arrive. In the Indian program, the program adds a direct payment to the raised income that delay brings on its own.

Domestic Product

Later Motherhood and the Politics & Economics of Women's Work

later motherhood