Changes in attitudes

• Women are choosing to have families later or not at all.
• Women are more likely to go to university, they often want to launch their careers before taking a break.
• Women may delay childbirth until they are financially stable; postponing pregnancy means some women are less fertile when they eventually try for a baby, though almost twice as many babies are born to over-40s as a decade ago.

  » feminism has made some women question child-rearing as a priority.
• Many couples limit their families so they can devote more attention to each child. The average family size is now just 2, compared with 2.7 in 1960.

  › more women also live alone or are divorced or separated.
• Contraception, abortion and deliberate childlessness have become more socially acceptable; for example, doctors will now prescribe contraception and agree to abortion for teenage girls, whereas in the past families might have insisted on a 'shotgun marriage'.