Higher education does not mean fewer children

Women who receive higher education have children later than others. However, having higher education doesn't necessarily lead to fewer children. This is according to research performed by PhD student Karin Monstad.

02.10.2007 - Andreas Bjørbak Alnæs

Monstad has completed research on the connection between education and pregnancy, and she defended her PhD thesis at NHH on Friday, September 28th.

Postponing Children
Normal theories suggest that women with higher education levels often choose to have fewer children and to postpone parenthood in order to obtain a more competitive position in the job market.

"This has been a theory for a long time, but we have not been able to conclude that higher education leads to fewer children," said Monstad to Paraplyen.

At the same time, the results show that women with higher education have a clear tendency to postpone their first pregnancy. There is also a continuous increase in the number of women who are experiencing their first pregnancy after the age of 30.

Fewer Teen Pregnancies
Monstad wants to find the reasons behind why women with higher education wait to have children.

"It is a challenge to measure this because the choice of education is a personal decision that women decide themselves. It could be that is not only the length of education that is crucial, but also the factors that one cannot observe which influence the choice of both education and pregnancy," explained Monstad.

In the 1960's, the junior high school reform was implemented in Norway. This meant that the compulsory schooling was increased by 2 years. This is a part of the education choice which the individual does not have control of, but which is decided by society.

In Monstad's research, women who were affected by the reform and completed nine years of compulsory schooling are compared to those who weren't affected and completed just 7 years of compulsory schooling. Monstad points out that the results must not be interpreted to represent all Norwegian women, because many will choose higher education regardless of what is mandatory or not.

"The groups that traditionally have the highest number of teenage pregnancies show the highest tendency to postpone having children because of the reform. This particularly concerns younger women in cities and especially those from families with low income," concluded Monstad.
---------------

Karin Monstad defended her thesis in Karl Borch's auditorium on Friday, September 28th at 9:15.
The advisor for Monstad's thesis was Kjell G Salvanes.

Translated by Nancy Cavanaugh