OTB,

"It was Roman Catholic edicts aimed at increasing their flock to dominate Australian politics and unavailability of reliable contraception that increased Australian families."

Funnily enough my first ancestors in Australia were C of E and Presbyterian and there were 10 children in each family.
The first C of E ancestor born in Aust. had 9 plus an adopted daughter (who was the natural sister of my father and the adopted sister of my mother).

The Catholic families all had a few less and less again in each generation.

Family numbers dropped as economic security increased, social services, until recent times, were the best limiters of families.

Not that I don't agree that the Catholic Church was/is wrong to oppose contraception.

//The Catholic families all had a few less and less again in each generation.//

But in defense of us Micks: my favourite priest (a mick) is nine of nine. I am five of five (penternary adjunct of unimatrix 42, ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha). My mum is one of seven, and her dad didn't get married until he was forty (40!). And still fathered six more children after mum. We may be late bloomers, but apparently we bloom fruitfully.

//Not that I don't agree that the Catholic Church was/is wrong to oppose contraception.//

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUspLVStPbk

Every sperm is sacred
Every sperm is good
Every sperm is needed
In your neighbour'ood

Ia Mise, "Funnily enough my first ancestors in Australia were C of E and Presbyterian and there were 10 children in each family"

Agreed and already covered, "and unavailability of reliable contraception that increased Australian families".

Unless you are saying that mothers of large families were having those children by choice, which I would disagree with.

The ability of women to control contraception was a precondition for the emancipation of women. Added to by the availability of abortion on demand.

Sorry, I only just noticed the glaring mathematical error that might have led some people to conclude that my granddad was 40! = 815915283247897734345611269596115894272000000000 years old when he got married. If they don't know the approximate age of the universe.

I wasn't using ! as the factorial symbol; when I said 40! I was expressing surprise because 40 is an old age at which to start fathering children. Apologies to anybody who may have misread my post.

I agree with Beach,

"The ability of women to control contraception was a precondition for the emancipation of women. Added to by the availability of abortion on demand."

Added to that is equality in education, which has in our society been achieved, along with equality in employment and income, which has improved markedly, but is yet to be fully achieved for women. Changes in social attitudes has gone a long way towards acceptance and allows women a far greater degree of independence than was once the case, when the independent woman was the rare exception and not the rule.

The modern 19th/20th century working class women, uneducated, no income, no family or government support, and a large brood of dependent children to fend for, had no chance for independence.
Interesting, when the Lang Labor Government of NSW in the 1920's introduced "Child Endowment" of 5/- a week, it was opposed by the Conservatives on the grounds that as Lang wanted it paid to mothers, it would act to make these mothers, "loose women"! Some unions also opposed such payments as possibly undermining the wages of men.

The age gap disparity, like most things sexual is based in biology. Women are fertile until 35 from when it drops off rapidly, whereas men remain fertile into their 70s.

Men were expected to have established their careers and to have demonstrated that they were capable of supporting a family, whilst girls were generally expected to be married by 20.

Prior to the 60s the most common cases of men marrying women significantly older than themselves was for the wealth of the woman, or sometimes as in the case of Catherine the great, who supposedly dated younger men the older she got, it was powerful women liberated enough to indulge their fancies.

As science is advancing the limitations on women are disappearing, and so too apparently are the old social norms.