Not Your Mother’s Mother

Single, educated, racially diverse, and over 35, the faces of mothers today are changing.

A Pew report reveals great changes in the motherhood demographic over the last two decades, with babies being born to older, single women who are more educated. Also, while the numbers of black and Hispanic unmarried women who become mothers is higher than that of whites, the number of white women who are unmarried has risen most dramatically since 1990.

According to the survey, mothers of newborns are older today than they were twenty years ago, and as teen births have increased, the number new moms over age 35 has increased. While 1990 saw 13 percent of births happening to teen moms, versus 9 percent to those over age 35, in 2008, says Pew, the reverse occurred. While one in ten births happened by teens, 14 percent of births were by women age 35 and older. This trend cut across all racial and ethnic lines.

Unmarried mothers in 2008 accounted for four-in-ten births (41 percent), including most births to women in their twenties, Pew adds. This indicates an upward trend from 28 percent of births to unmarried women in 1990.

There have been other changes among racial groups, however, with the percentage of white women among those giving birth falling. In 1990 white women accounted for nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of mothers giving birth, while 2008 saw the number decrease to just over half (53 percent). Among Hispanic women, the share of women giving birth has dramatically increased, with that number rising up to one in four.

As new moms have gotten older, they have also become more educated, Pew indicates. While 41 percent of new mothers had some higher education in 1990, more than half of new mothers (54 percent) in 2006 had at least some college background. Among mothers over age 35, the number of women with some college education was even higher, at 71 percent.

Pew researchers say that the trend in more college-educated new moms is due to increases in women’s educational attainment and rising birth rates. Among unmarried women, more babies may be due to the combination of rising birth rates and the diminishing number of adults who are married overall.

What do the changes in new moms' greater education, racial diversity and unmarried status mean for American society?

“Moms' greater education mean they will be raising a more educated workforce and will themselves be contributing more in the way of human capital to the economy,” says Elizabeth Gregory, director of the women's studies program at the University of Houston.  

“The shifting racial demographics mean that the nation is becoming and will continue to become more racially diverse,” she adds. “The growth in births to unmarried women suggest that marriage is becoming less attractive to a big segment of the population and that childcare assistance will be even more needed.”

These developments in the demographics of motherhood reflect big changes for women ahead, Gregory notes.

“Because women are delaying childbirth in order to get more education and establish themselves in the workforce, they can participate more fully in the making of public policy,” she explains. “So down the line, that should mean that women's views will be more fully reflected in the structuring of business and society.”   

As these major social shifts occur, so will consumer identities. Businesses will have to employ different approaches to reach consumers, and advertisers and marketers will be wise to roll with the shifting dynamics.

“The rise in births to unmarried women has been on my radar for awhile,” Kat Gordon, principal at Maternal Instinct says. “One substantial change is that it will force folks in my industry—advertising—to embrace is a redefinition of family.”

Notions of what constitutes a family are changing, Gordon explains.

“Traditionally three made a family. Now it is two. A woman and her child constitute a family as much as larger families with two heads of household,” she maintains.

Which products and services will have to acknowledge these changing family dynamics first?

“Lamaze class providers are perhaps the first companies that will be tasked with rethinking their offering,” Gordon says. “Do not assume there is a husband who will be assisting in the birth room.”

Babyhood brings many other items, before the baby even arrives, she notes.

“Next come the baby shower wish lists on retailers like Target.com, Giggle.com, Babiesrus.com and dozens of others,” Gordon says. “While you can still assume two names on a bridal registry, not so for baby registries.”

There will be a multitude of products and services that will have to rethink their approaches to reach consumers.

”This is just the tip of the iceberg," she maintains. "Brands will not only have to shift their depiction of families, but their entire assumptions about who they are marketing to. Some companies have already picked up on the fact that many women are waiting to have kids until later—or opting out entirely.”  

For women who are not choosing motherhood but are still close to the special children in their lives, there is at least one resource, Gordon says. 

“One example is SavvyAuntie.com—a site dedicated to women who don't have kids, but who are deeply involved in the upbringing of their nieces, nephew, godchildren, [and so on],” she states. “These women have money to spend and brands need to know how to reach them.”