The Postwar Rise and Decline of American Fertility: The Pace of Transition to Motherhood Among 1950–1969 Marital Cohorts of White Women

Abstract

This study supports the theoretical argument that historical experiences of the marital cohorts, and the changes in the social and demographic composition of the cohorts, determine the pace of childbearing among white American women married during 1950–1969. During the period 1965–1969 environmental factors supported a delay in the birth of the first child among working women. This may be the result of socioenvironmental responses to the threshold proportion of working women in the 1965–1969 cohort In the past, compositional changes, such as an increase in the proportion of working women, have resulted from structural changes absorbing women into the labor market. These trends might have brought about attitudinal and environmental changes during these years enabling many women to become more work committed Thus, both structural and environmental changes now support delayed childbearing.