Seeding the gender revolution: Women’s education and cohort fertility among the baby boom generations

n Europe and the United States, women’s educational attainment started to increase around the middle of thetwentieth century. The expected implication was fertility decline and postponement, whereas in fact theopposite occurred. We analyse trends in the quantum of cohort fertility among the baby boomgenerations in 15 countries and how these relate to women’s education. Over the 1901–45 cohorts, theproportion of parents with exactly two children rose steadily and homogeneity in family sizes increased.Progression to a third child and beyond declined in all the countries, continuing the ongoing trends of thefertility transition. In countries with a baby boom, and especially among women with post-primaryeducation, this was compensated for by decreasing childlessness and increasing progression to a secondchild. These changes, linked to earlier stages of the fertility transition, laid the foundations for laterfertility patterns associated with the gender revolution.