Women's Education and Family Behavior

Fertility declines starkly as maternal education rises and the educational differences have not changed despite enormous increases in the educational attainment of both white and black women, according to a recent study by National Bureau of Economic Research on how marital and fertility patterns have changed along racial and educational lines.

Other findings include:

• Marriage and remarriage rates have risen for women with a college degree relative to women with fewer years of education.


• College educated women marry later, have fewer children, are less likely to view marriage as “financial security”, are happier in their marriages and with their family life.


• College educated women are not only the least likely to divorce, but have had the biggest decrease in divorce since the 1970s compared to women without a college degree.

Read the whole paper here [2].

Posted by

Sui Zhang [3]