A conversation with...Elizabeth Gregory

Also see: Motherhood later

In NYC, the fastest way to find a mother under 25 years old is to flip through a supermarket tabloid. It’s “later moms” (those who have their first child after 35) that are more commonplace here. But that doesn’t mean their timing is always applauded. Gregory, an associate professor and the director of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Houston, dishes about why these moms are actually happier.

1 What made you decide to write this book?
The topic hadn’t been fully explored. To the extent that it had been, the focus was mostly on the problems with it.

2 What surprised you most in your research?
How consistently older women were very positive about their experiences. They felt satisfied with what they had achieved in their education, work and life.

3 Why do older moms feel they have an advantage?
The women I met said that they felt more self-confident than when they were younger. They were financially better-off, and they believed that their risk of divorce was lower and that they had learned how to compromise.

4 Will this trend change the way we view the role of moms?
Later moms are often used to being compensated for their work, and now they’re tackling a job that women have traditionally done for free. As a society, we have to decide if we’re going to pay for this work somehow; older moms may be influential in that decision.

—Julia Israel