Increasingly heterogeneous ages at first birth by education in Southern European and Anglo-American family-policy regimes: A seven-country comparison by birth cohort

Abstract

Family-policy regimes unfavourable to combining employment with motherhood have been claimed to increase socio-economic differentials in fertility as combining employment and motherhood has become more normative. This claim has to date been explored mainly in reference to 'liberal' AngloAmerican regimes. Comparing education differentials in age at first birth among native-born women of 1950s and 1960s birth cohorts in seven countries representing three regime types, we find persistence in early first births among low-educated women not only in Britain and the United States but also in Greece, Italy, and Spain. Shifts towards later first births, however, were more extreme in Southern Europe and involved to some extent women at all education levels. The educationallyheterogeneous changes in age patterns of first births seen in the Southern European and AngloAmerican family-policy regimes contrast with educationally-homogeneous changes across birth cohorts seen in the study's two 'universalistic' countries, Norway and France.

Educational differences in timing and quantum of childbearing in Britain

“…However, there is in fact an increase in the proportion of mothers with the lowest levels of education (i.e., no qualifications or less than Ordinary (O) Level qualifications) who enter parenthood before the age of 20 years, rising from 20.9% of mothers in the 1940−49 cohort to 26.6% and 25.3% of mothers in the 1950−59 and 1960−69 cohorts, respectively. This is consistent with our existing knowledge about the persistence in the UK of early entry into motherhood for (generally more socio-economically disadvantaged) subgroups (Sigle-Rushton 2008; Rendall et al 2010). It is also likely to reflect the fact that the least qualified have become a smaller and more select group, with teenage births increasingly concentrated in this sub-section of women, among whom lack of education has become an extreme marker of disadvantage.…”

“…Not only has fertility been postponed more in the UK than in some other countries, but this postponement has also been concentrated in the most educated groups (Rendall et al 2005;Kneale and Joshi 2008). Thus in the UK the timing of entry into motherhood is highly polarised according to education, similarly to the situation found in the US and Australia, but unlike the situation in Norway and France (Rendall et al 2010).…”

“…For example, among women born in the 1960s who have their first birth aged 30-34, average completed family size is 2.06 for those with degrees, as compared with 1.85 for those with less than Ordinary (O) Level qualifications. This is what we would expect given selection mechanisms and the postponement and recuperation of childbearing among more-educated women (Rendall et al 2010;Berrington and Pattaro 2014). What is perhaps more unexpected is the way in which these educational differences have remained relatively stable over the cohorts born over a 30 year period.…”

“…Thus in the UK the timing of entry into motherhood is highly polarised according to education, similarly to the situation found in the US and Australia, but unlike the situation in Norway and France (Rendall et al 2010). Underlying these cross-national differences are specific policy mechanisms that encourage or supress postponement of childbearing.…”

Male fertility in Greece

“…Research findings suggest persisting differences in fertility regarding mother's education: higher fertility is confined to the less educated (Lewis and Ventura 1990;Yang and Morgan 2003;Bagavos 2010;Rendall et al 2010). As the level of educational attainment rises, childbearing is postponed to later ages, and TFR declines.…”