In California Parenthood Comes Late Or Never

The San Jose Mercury reports:

One in four women in California are now childless in their early 40s - nearly double the rate in 1980, the highest since record-keeping began in 1870, and a significantly higher rate than for the United States overall.

And yet, never have so many Californians given birth in their 40s. With teen birth rates continuing to drop, the bulk of childbearing is moving out of the teens and 20s and into the 30s - or later. Birth rates for women in their early 40s have tripled over the past two decades, for reasons both social and economic.

Women pay a wage and career penalty for having children, social research shows. And with women's wages in California higher relative

to men in 2006 than in any of the 50 states, and a rapidly growing number of women earning college degrees, the "cost" of motherhood may be higher in California, said Hans Johnson, a PPIC demographer and author of the report, and other experts.

How are the childless women going to pass on their childless values, in the future, when other groups in society are out breeding them?