WOMEN IN young couples are increasingly likely to earn more money and have a better standard of education than their male partners, new research shows.
This is one of many findings to emerge from a detailed study of the structure of Irish families published yesterday by the Economic and Social Research Institute in collaboration with UCD.
In contrast to the traditional family based on a male breadwinner, the report shows a growing number of young couples where the woman has a higher earning power.
Among younger couples aged between 26 and 40 years, 42 per cent of women had a higher occupational level versus 28 per cent for men.
It was a similar story with education. Woman had a better standard of education in 34 per cent of couples, as opposed to just 18 per cent where the opposite was the case.
The finding is likely to add to growing calls for policymakers to explore ways to increase the availability of flexible working arrangements for both fathers and mothers. Researchers say this would also benefit the economy by lessening the impact of child-rearing on women’s careers.
The report shows that while the family based on marriage is on the decline, it remains the dominant family unit.
About two-thirds of all family units are those where both partners have been married for the first time.
The remaining family structures are dominated by lone mothers, cohabiting couples and family units including couples who were previously married.
Second relationships and step-families, though they exist in diverse forms, remain relatively rare in Ireland, the report notes.
Of the 1.15 million children living in Ireland, 75 per cent live with two married parents, 18 per cent with a lone parent and 6 per cent with cohabiting parents.
Figures cited in the study, Households and Family Structures in Ireland, by Pete Lunn and Tony Fahey, are based on the 2006 census and use statistical techniques to provide a more detailed picture of families than has previously been available.
Among its findings are that cohabiting couples are growing as a family unit and are often seen as a “trial run” before marriage, researchers say. For example, the likelihood of a couple getting married increases sharply after the birth of a first child.
Overall, cohabiting couples are more likely to be from a lower socio-economic group. For example, a couple in their 30s who both have third-level qualifications are less than half as likely to cohabit as a couple who both have lower second-level qualifications.
In the area of fertility, the research indicates that despite a sharp increase in the number of births, the number of births among long-term Irish residents fell in the period covered by the study – 1996 to 2006. This, researchers say, probably reflects a delay in child-bearing among Irish people rather than a desire for fewer children.
The results of the findings are likely to have implications for future government policies.
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald welcomed the research and said she was willing to review policies on flexible working for mothers and fathers. “Measures such as maternity and parental leave, flexible work arrangements, term-time working and childcare are important supports to facilitate families with child-rearing responsibilities.”
Patterns of fertility
Average age of mothers has been increasingly steadily for the past 15 years
34is the age at which women have the highest probability of having a child under one year of age
The most common gap between the first and second child is two years
Women with degrees are much more likely to have a child in their late 30s than women who have not completed second-level education
Who partners whom?
42%of women in young couples are likely to be higher earners than their male partners, compared with just 28 per cent of young men
In the EU, only Poland has a smaller proportionof couples than Ireland where one or both partners had been married before
Only 62 per centof young couples share the same ethnicity as opposed to 90 per cent of older couples Partnerships between nationalities are most common between Irish and UK nationals.
34%of younger women are more educated than their partner compared to 18 per cent of younger men
Children’s family circumstances
29,100children, or 2.5 per cent of children, live in families containing at least one stepchild
75per cent of children live with married parents
18%of children live with a lone parent