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The article focuses on the increasing labour force participation of women with children. The percentage who had the care of dependent children had dropped in an almost identical way, from 54 per cent in the mid-to 46 per cent in the mid-1990s. It is because two trends have been working in parallel. The first is the trend for more of those women who have children to stay in, or return to, the workforce after the birth of a child or during the early child-raising years. The second trend has been occurring with somewhat less fanfare, perhaps because it has not attracted the need for specific services. During the same period, the birthrates of women aged under 25 have also declined. The 1985 Canadian divorce law used gender-neutral language and made it clear for the first time that mothers were expected to support their children financially. Child support decisions varied considerably with legal advocacy and judicial discretion and could not be said to be based on the cost of childrearing, the non-custodial parent's income, or equitable sharing between partners.

The article examines the effects of changing personal relationships on decisions about having children in Australia. The declining fertility rate in Australia and other developed countries has received a great deal of attention over the last few years. The contemporary decline in the fertility rate stems from the fact that increasing proportions of women are restricting their family size to one or two children, or remaining permanently childless. The decline in the fertility rate since the 1960s can be explained by a number of interacting factors including the introduction of the contraceptive pill and availability of abortion, improvements in the education levels of young women, and the increasing participation of women in paid employment. While the financial and non-financial costs of having children may lead women and men to have few if any children, it seems very likely that intentions about having children are also linked to expectations about relationship status. Those men and women who are already in an apparently stable relationship are likely to hold intentions based on an expectation that their relationship would continue. Some people who do not have a partner may intend to have children after they have found a suitable partner with whom to live. However, some relationships end before children are born and some single people do not find partners.