Study: Women Entering Motherhood Later
New data from a research study found that women are entering motherhood at older ages and childrearing years are being portrayed as less satisfying in American culture.
According to the National Marriage Project, the number of women aged 25-29 years who have already entered motherhood dramatically dropped in the past three decades from 73.6 percent to 48.7.
Although motherhood is being pushed back, most Americans were reported to still wanting to have at least one child and, ideally, two. Still, many sense that parenthood can be a tough ride, according to an essay by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead titled "Life Without Children." In the essay, Whitehead parallels the delayed motherhood to a change in the adult life course where child rearing occupies a smaller share of American lives whereas before life with children was central to marriage and family life.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
One in five women in their early forties was reported to be childless in 2004. In 1976, however, it was one out of ten.
According to the essay, the study also noted a growing "marriage gap" in America between those well educated and those who are not. Marriage for the college-educated population has strengthened, but for others, marriage continues to weaken.
College-educated women were found to be marrying at a higher rate than their peers and the divorce rate among the well educated group was highlighted as relatively low and dropping.
Out-of-wedlock births have also been on the rise. In 2000, 40 percent of high school drop-out mothers were living without husbands while only 12 percent of college-grad mothers were single. Live births to unmarried women rose from 10.7 percent in 1970 to 35.7 percent in 2004.
Dr. Janice Crouse, senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute – the think tank of Concerned Women for America – brought attention to the fact that "the problem" does not lie with teenagers, but with older women. Although this could be a "shock" to most Americans who think out-of-wedlock pregnancies are mainly among teenagers, studies have shown that less teens are having sex.
The 2005 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported a drop from 54 percent in 1991 to 47 percent of high school students who said they had ever had sexual intercourse.
Nevertheless, unmarried motherhood "is not good" for both mothers and children, stated Crouse.
"Women, when it gets right down to it, are very vulnerable," she said, according to CWA. Women need husbands and children need fathers, Crouse stressed.
