[Sociological aspects of late fatherhood]

Starting from a sociological research on late parenthood, the article shows quantitative and qualitative lessons on the subject--in particular concerning the fathers' perspective. Late parenthood has declined over the 20th Century, to increase again since 1980. The further exploitation of the survey EHF 99 shows the processes and the socio-demographic of late fatherhood, over three generations. This phenomenon is tightly related to the multiple descents and family recombinings. We also observe in these configurations major age differences between spouses and late relationship. The social bipolarity of this phenomenon appears clearly as far as late motherhood is concerned, but is less clear concerning fatherhood, since more blue collars and non qualified men are concerned. This difference is due to the important role played by migrants in this phenomenon. A qualitative survey conducted on the basis of biographic interviews has underlined the gendered logics of late family founding. These logics are linked to the discrepancies due to man/woman differences regarding their respective calendar of fertility and to their attitude towards work. The interviews which provide an analysis of the biographical processes of late parenthood are organised according to postponement or renewal logics, in the form of refoundation or repetition. They are linked to self-introspection and to the negotiations at work within a couple.