Education, work and family decision making: finding the “right time” to have a baby.

The writer explores the relationship between occupational and educational choices and decisions about having children. She analyzes the experiences of a group of women from a variety of traditional and nontraditional fields as they attempt to deal with the possibility or certainty of motherhood. S...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian Review of Sociology & Anthropology Vol. 35; no. 4; pp. 517 - 534
Main Author: Ranson, Gillian
Format: Article
Published: Canadian Sociological Association November 1998
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:The writer explores the relationship between occupational and educational choices and decisions about having children. She analyzes the experiences of a group of women from a variety of traditional and nontraditional fields as they attempt to deal with the possibility or certainty of motherhood. She uses data drawn from a sample of university-educated women to attempt to interpret the results of previous research that has found that a higher number of women in traditional fields have children by their thirties than do graduates of less traditional fields. She acknowledges the probable effects of gender socialization on family intentions and occupational choices but concludes that the organization of work also materially affects reproductive decision making.