A few weeks ago I asked if “Idiocracy” was closer to fact than fiction because of the studies showing that the higher the IQ the lower the maternal urges are……or are they?
A Pew Research Report showed that over the years there has been a slow and steady incline with the amount of women having children across all ethnic and racial groups who have advanced degrees. According to the Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau Data, in 1994 30% of women ages 40 to 44 with a master’s degree or higher had no children but now in 2015 that percentage has moved to 22% which estimates to one-in-five women.
As more women are moving up the education and career chain their babies are being impacted as well. According to another Pew Research Center “on average, a mother with more education is more likely to deliver a baby at term and more likely to have a baby with a healthy birth weight. As they grow up, children with more educated mothers tend to have better cognitive skills and higher academic achievement than others.”
Keep in mind that these effects are not solely based on maternal education because there are more factors that come together for these birth outcomes to happen. For example, maternal education level often serves as a proxy to other factors such as economic status, overall lifestyle, as well as knowledge of and accessibility to other resources to help them have a healthy baby and pregnancy.
We can now see a trend that is taking place from mom, to baby, but there is one more trend that is shifting.
Notice the headlines about major companies offering more maternal and paternal leave? With the rise of intelligent women (not solely based on education level) in the workforce comes a rise in their career advancement. This means that more women are working and more women have managerial positions than ever before! These moms are the reason for the positive changes we are starting to see in the career world for women who want to have both a career and family life.
With all of this information I would say that the chances of “Idocracy” still rests a bit more on the side of fiction.