Women with degrees are choosing careers over families

Women with a university education are choosing to have children later in life, a British research reveals.

It shows that just over one in five female graduates become mothers by the age of 30. This compares to three in five in the mid-1970s.

Experts say the change is linked to women choosing to delay a family because they wish to pursue a career and good lifestyle.

The study, published in the journal Research in Public Policy, said: 'Changing participation¹ in education can only explain one half of the decline.

'What has driven fertility is not just that more women are now pursuing a higher level of education, but better-educated women have very different work and family trajectories² than before.

'The generations that saw the biggest increases in childlessness also saw big increases in full-time³ employment rates, suggesting that some women were choosing careers and not families.'

The changes also mean many educated women are now childless, it added. One in ten women now aged⁴ 50 does not have children. But one out of five women in their 30s and 40s is without children. And the rate is still climbing.