Fertility, Living Arrangements, Care and Mobility

Abstract

The last decades of the twentieth century have witnessed, as part of the second demographic transition affecting most industrial countries (Van de Kaa, 1987), two features of particular interest here – a delay in entry to motherhood and an increased chance of women being employed even after they have children. In Britain, these trends have not been experienced uniformly across the social spectrum. The research reported in this chapter attempts to establish links between these two phenomena, to quantify the extent of social differentials (in the timing of first motherhood and maternal employment) and to investigate their impact on the development of children.