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Title: The Timing of Initial Family Formation and Womens Wellbeing over the Lifecycle

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2011

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Abstract: Women born in the decades after the 1940s will be reaching retirement ages in the coming decades. This chapter shows how those women have started families later and later than previous generations, and considers how the delayed onset of marriage and motherhood may affect their economic wellbeing later in life. Data from the Original Cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys (Young and Mature Women) make it possible to track individual women for 35 years and link their fertility and marital histories with wage and wealth trajectories. This chapter uncovers cross-sectional associations in these data suggesting that delayed motherhood can lead to substantial improvements in womens economic wellbeing later in life. Delayed marriage is less important. Taken together, the results suggest some optimism for the economic wellbeing of future cohorts of retiring women, relative to prior cohorts, even after accounting for their wage gains.

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Authors: Miller, Amalia R.

Conference Name: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Publisher Location: San Francisco, CA

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Family and Marriage

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