Fertility Facts
Trends in Australian society
Meeting later and marrying later
- couples cohabit then marry when they decide they want children
- first marriage rates for under 30s dropped in the last 10 years:
- first births are later, with a longer wait after marriage
- delaying a first child means fewer second and third babies
- in the 1970s the peak age for having babies was 20-25 – and they had babies after 1 year of marriage, but in 2000 the age range rose to 25-35 with babies after 3 years
- now over half of babies are born to women over 30
Reduced partnering and increased divorce and separation
- 1/3 of men will never marry (by choice or circumstance), 1/3 of married men will divorce
- there are plenty of single men across the age groups
- but overall there is an excess of women in their 30s
Smaller families
- women and men are having fewer children than they say they want
- there are more single and couple households
- decline in teenage births
- the average new mum is now over 30
- rich women and poor men have fewer children
Social factors
- education extends dependence and delays responsible adulthood
- “failure to launch”- men are taking longer to grow up and commit
- studies indicate that the main reason for not becoming pregnant is the absence of a partner or being unable to find a partner who is prepared to commit to having children, rather than personal ambition
- men and women want to feel securely independent before they have children, and that often depends on the male partner having stable employment
- definitions of success and happiness for both men and women include a career as well as a family
- it is more acceptable for women to choose to be single and childless
- the nuclear family is less common; combined families, step families and de facto relationships are more common
- families are geographically spread and grandparents are not there for emergency childcare even if they are close, and Grandma may still be working
Women are delaying family formation for reasons other than ‘career and travel’
Women are acting responsibly
- need a financially secure partner
- need a stable dependable relationship
- need a partner willing to commit to family formation
- need to be sure they could raise a child alone if their circumstances changed
- It’s society’s issue, not a women’s issue
Economic factors
- Australia’s economy needs women to both work and have children
- two wages are needed now to pay a mortgage for even a modest home
- women have been entering the workforce and remaining there
- women now want financial independence before they will have children
- jobs are more often casual or contract, so loans are hard to get as banks only take into account the lowest hours
- incomes are less secure – ‘waiting to see if the job situation improves’ can mean long delays in family formation
- women are increasingly the breadwinners or the higher earner in a couple
- financial commitments may depend on her income; studies indicate that his career is often the deciding factor in delaying children, not hers
- more jobs require qualifications so more women are completing study
- women are more qualified, but less likely to use their qualifications than men especially once they have families.
- increased education means higher HECS debt and difficulty getting a loan/mortgage
- future HECS debts count in mortgage calculations, even if not payable yet
- government paid parental leave helps, but is not at the person’s income rate
- extra paid maternity leave is still rare and extra paid paternity leave even rarer
- more childcare places but
- no recognition of the high cost of providing baby care
- long waiting lists
- childcare is expensive for one child, prohibitive for 2 or 3
- childcare services don’t attract a tax rebate for 18 months
- childcare is inaccessible if working hours are long, variable or not Monday to Friday.