Social Status Polarization in the Timing and Trajectories to Motherhood

Abstract

This paper examines the polarization by social status of Canadian women’s timing and trajectories to motherhood. The study applies event history analysis on data gathered through the 2001 General Social Survey on Family History and focuses on women born from 1922 to 1980. Women with high social status are more likely to delay their entry into motherhood and to follow normatively preferred trajectories that include graduation from post-secondary education. In contrast, women with low social status are more likely to follow shorter routes, often bypassing graduation from post-secondary education, regular work, or marriage, and consequently become mothers at younger age.