Who Is Giving Birth in the U.S.?
Posted May 17th, 2010 by Valerie YoungFrom Your (Wo)manInWashington blog
MOTHERS changing the conversation @ www.MothersOughtToHaveEqualRights.org
New data from the Pew Research Center reveal some surprising changes in the decisions women make about marriage and family. Over the past 20 years, non-Hispanic white women had fewer children, and now account for just over half of US births. The birthrate among black teenage girls has fallen by 50%, and there are more births to women over 35 than women under 20. The average age for first-time motherhood is 25. Only 1 out of every 10 births occurs to a teen-aged girl.
It’s far easier to calculate changes than to identify the reasons for them. As their labor force participation increases, women may delay giving birth for career advancement and/or financial security. New fertility technology, for those who cannot get pregnant, or waited too long to try, is making parenthood possible later in life for those who can afford it. Mothers today are likely to be better educated, which also may delay motherhood.
Two other pieces of information suggest contradictory trends. More women now choose not to have a child at all, and more mothers are unmarried. About 4 of every 10 US births is to a single woman. Marriage and motherhood are not nearly as connected as they once were, and statistics show that women sometimes choose one or the other without feeling compelled to do both. White and Hispanic births are now much more likely to be to single mothers. Again, the motivations driving these decisions were not the object of study. It seems a safe bet, though, that men’s economic role in women’s lives has somewhat diminished, and women may now decide it is socially acceptable and economically possible to remain single, or to become a mother while remaining single.
If American motherhood were not so fraught with economic peril, would more women give birth? Impossible to say. Are we better off if the women giving birth are more educated, older, and able to economically sustain themselves and their children? Absolutely. Perhaps the rising age of first-time motherhood, the falling rates of teen pregnancy, and the willingness of women, especially mothers, to participate in the paid labor force, all demonstrate that women can be trusted to make their own wise decisions when given the opportunity and resources to do so.
‘Til next time,
Your (Wo)man in Washington
Click here to read more posts from Your (Wo)manInWashington blog
4 Comments
I found this article to be very one-sided. There are many many reasons why women wait to have children and they do not always involve being educated. Some women do not want to have children, but become pregnant when birth-control fails. Some women abandon their children and the fathers or grandparents take the responsibility of raising the child. Many, many people have children so that they can receive more aid from the government, (this angers me the most). There are so many reasons why women choose to have or not have children. I have always believed that I would be a mother. I am still young at 28 years old, but have been busy with forming my career and going to school. With time I have begun to really think about the way that I would like my life to be and I’m not quite sure that it involves having children. This has come with growing up and not with being college educated. I watch my friends having children and don’t appreciate their lives. I love working with children, but like the choice of doing what I would like as an adult. Perhaps in more time. It is no woman’s fault how they have children, unless they refuse to make something of themselves and do the best for their children. Aka keep them safe (ex. abusive fathers, boyfriends,drugs), fed, clothed, and sheltered. Forget the IPODS and 400,000 houses. Number 1 goal is to take care of your responsibility WITH OUT draining the government as much as possible. Just my opinion anyways.
[Reply]
May 19, 2010 at 2:40 pm by Heather“New fertility technology, for those who cannot get pregnant, or waited too long to try, is making parenthood possible later in life for those who can afford it.”
I have to disagree with this; I know more than one woman who experienced fertility problems in her 30s, tried fertility treatments ranging from hormone injections to in-vitro, and failed to conceive. Then some of them get desperate and load themselves up with multiple embryos, because their desire for a child is more important than the potential negative health outcomes for multiple-birth babies. Women are massively uninformed about the success of fertility treatment as they get older, and posts like yours, reassuring women that parenthood is possible later in life as long as you can afford it, don’t do anything to dispel these myths. I know a woman who, at 40, has been through 3 unsuccessful in-vitro treatments. Yet she’s lived with the same partner for 10 or 12 years now; maybe if she’d had a true understanding of the risks, she would have started her family earlier. Or maybe not, but at least her infertility wouldn’t have come as such a shock.
[Reply]
May 18, 2010 at 10:29 am by cladnerI don’t understand how this logic works:
“Perhaps…the willingness of women, especially mothers, to participate in the paid labor force, … demonstrate[s] that women can be trusted to make their own wise decisions when given the opportunity and resources to do so.”
First, I don’t know what you are defining as a wise decision. Putting off having children til a later age? For me, that worked, but for many, it’s just as wise to have children earlier.
And how does the willingness of women to work demonstrate that we can be trusted to make wise decisions? For stay-at-home moms (I am not one), they can be trusted, too.
I simply am not following your logic, so please clarify. Thank you!
[Reply]
Jo Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
@cladner, I have to agree with your question/concern. It is not a wise decision to rear a child alone no matter what our society dictates as okay. I think some women have been given no other choice due to abandonment. While others had a choice and have decided that they can parent alone and have no desire for further input. A man’s economic role can make a difference, but the actual rearing-accountable-strategic upbringing of a little boy &/or girl is a duty. Parenting is a fulltime heart wrenching J O B and no child should be neglected of a male and female’s guidance on lifes lessons to be nurtured and protectd and most of all LOVED!
[Reply]
Leave a Comment