Cohen comments on the age of first-time mothers
Quoctrung Buid and Claire Can Miller, writing for the New York Times, report that education may seem to be the determinant line of the age when women decide to start a family. Women with college degrees take around seven years to build their incomes and careers before having children. Nowadays, new parents have a tendency to start a family, on average, at the age of 26 for mothers and 31 for fathers when compared to 21 and 27 respectively, back in 1972.
Given that in some rural areas mothers are younger than in big cities and on the coasts, Faculty Associate and researcher Philip Cohen, based on his research on families and social inequality, stated that "in places where people have children earlier and younger, it doesn't mean they're less happy, but they are less gender equal in terms of economics." Young mothers are most likely to be conservative and value traditional gender roles compared to older mothers who tend to be more liberal and share responsibilities more equally with men.