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International Journal of
Population Studies Drivers of reproductive delay in the UK

that their window of reproductive opportunity is already mothers, suggesting perhaps that having experienced the
quite limited. After age 25, fecundity starts to deteriorate demands of motherhood emphasizes the importance of not
and although many women have successful pregnancies doing it alone.
in their late thirties and early forties, the risks are still Research on reproductive decision-making is made
substantially higher than in their 20s (Hadley, 2021). This more difficult by the fact that there is almost always at
finding might also shed light on the reasons for unwanted least one other person, usually a partner, involved in the
childlessness, which is around 20% for women in the UK decision-making process. It is difficult to incorporate this
(Berrington, 2004); if the reproductive window is only negotiating process in typical survey methods that aim to
around 10 years and the persistent need for a supportive identify causes of delayed fertility and have been so far, best
hands-on partner is not met soon after age 33, then it may understood from qualitative work (Bernardi et al., 2015).
simply be too late to conceive. This was the only group Although the DCE methodology presented here cannot
for which baby timing became salient later in adulthood; fully encapsulate the negotiating process between couples,
it is possible; however, that there are different priorities at we can get a sense of how important partner needs are.
earlier ages that are not covered in this study. Scaling up For university men, this was particularly important and it
this research can explore the differences within age groups was clear that they value highly their partner’s readiness
as well as across educational strata.
for children. University women, likely the partners in
All three other demographics showed significant baby- question, are prioritizing most highly for hands-on dads.
timing estimates from the youngest ages modelled (18 years Non-university women were less concerned about their
for non-university and age 21 for university-educated). This partner’s readiness or support but were very concerned
finding questions the broad observation that education about their commitment to the relationship. These findings
delays fertility for educated men; baby timing is important are in line with other work documenting that a primary
from any age (below 38 years) although they do rate their reason for remaining childless is “never having met the
partner’s readiness very highly. Given that it is likely that right person” and this is a common reason given by both
educated men are partnering with educated women (Erát, men and women (Berrington, 2017).
2021), the combination of these two findings suggests The main limitation of this work is the relatively small
that women are driving fertility delay in educated men. sample size. It was designed as a test case to examine how
Although implicit in much fertility research, as far as I am effective applying this methodology to a novel question
aware, this study provides the first empirical evidence of this would be. As such, it was conducted as a pilot study which
phenomenon. This also draws some parallels with partial could be expanded in future work, in particular, to be able
explanations for the SDT being attributed to ideational to ask more demographic background questions, such as
change since the 1960s (Lesthaeghe, 2014; Mills et al., 2011). about respondents’ religiosity, and their gender and ethnic
Having smaller families, and making individual choices, identities to test if the barriers people face are mediated
was seen by some as a feminist response to patriarchal by these things. Similarly, a scaled-up study could examine
control over female fertility. In line with this, we observe regional or country variation so as to explore how different
other changes too. These results show that educated women local policies influence people’s needs.
prioritize a hands-on partner very highly, suggesting a move
away from the traditional male-breadwinner narrative 5. Conclusion
which is still pervasive in the literature (Bernardi & Keim,
2017) lending full support to the gender revolution notion Altogether, this study has revealed some of the primary
that fertility will increase as men bear more of the weight drivers of delayed fertility in the UK. It has also scrutinized
of domestic labor (Goldscheider et al., 2015). This is not to the differences between gender and educational groups,
say finances and material needs are not important; women which has not been done before. Although finances and
in both groups rated this priority highly, but not as highly housing conditions are important across the board, the most
as partner characteristics. For non-university women, the compelling finding is that partner support is highly valued
evidence also suggests that partners are more important in for all demographic groups, although in different ways, and
terms of availability rather than as providers, although they that not having this support is a significant contributor to the
framed it in terms of commitment rather than hands-on observed lengthy postponement of parenthood in the UK.
fathering (Brough & Sheppard, 2022). This notion of
changing gender norms in family roles is also indirectly Acknowledgments
supported from the analysis of differences between parents The author thanks Mikaela Brough who collected the
and non-parents. The need for partners, for both groups of qualitative data that were used for the DCE design and is
women, was more pronounced for those who were already ever grateful to all the study participants.

Volume 11 Issue 3 (2025) 133 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.3600