Posted on 06/25/2010 3:16:32 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Nearly one in five American women in her early 40s is childless, according to a report that shows a striking increase in women who don't have biological children.
The trend was much less common in the 1970s, when one in 10 women did not have children by 40 to 44, the age bracket researchers use to designate the end of childbearing years.
The report, released Friday by the Pew Research Center, cites social and cultural shifts behind the change, including less pressure to have children, better contraceptive measures and expanded job opportunities for women.
(snip)
Overall, the report found that white women are more likely to be childless, as are women with more education. The analysis, based largely on census data, comes amid changing attitudes about women who do not have children.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Nobody told them that later in life many of them would wind up as empty and unfulfilled cat-farmers with no families.
Oh well. Going along with the wrong crowd has consequences.
“Smart people don’t reproduce like rabbits, stupid people do. That is the basis of what supposedly makes Marxism/Communism/Socialism work. A never-ending supply of idiots”.
Wouldn’t the number of childless American men in their 40’s be correspondingly higher than the 1970’s as well?
A little unrelated, but I often wonder if the sharp increase in autism since the 1970s could be do to older people (both men & women) having more children. My wife and I are in our early 50’s, but all of our children are adults. However, we have plenty of friends in their 40’s who have infants. That was never the case 30-40 years ago.
Men don’t have restrictive child-bearing years...
Careful you don't run out of oxygen up there on that high horse of yours.
White liberal gay women and men in their 40’s.
I liked the “cat farmers” thing, though.
Ann Coulter doesn’t have kids. She seems to be handling it just fine.
Not every woman over 40 who is childless is a libtard or nutcase.
Um....I’m approaching 60 and don’t have children. I never needed children or a man to be fulfilled. As for being lonely and empty, did it ever occur to you that some of us revel in our solitude? Now I happen to have friends and family I can socialize with, but if I don’t — so what? It’s not that important to me. I can be alone and actually enjoy it.
I refuse to marry and have children merely because someone thinks I should. It’s not a matter of being a feminist; it’s that having children would not have been right for me, or for the child for that matter. Far too many people have had children that should never have. I recognized a long time ago that I didn’t want to bring a child into this world. That child would have been unwanted. Lord knows there are enough of those in the world.
Actually, that is exactly NOT what happened.
But carry on with your uninformed prejudice, since it seems to be working for you.
And ladies, FREERIDER ping!
You might want to reconsider that generalization, in light of the sheer volume of FReeper females who don’t have children.
YOU ARE WRONG. And possibly evil. You should have had children. You should go out right now and have some. It’s, like, your conservative obligation, or something. What are you, some selfish feminist lib?
Sheesh, that hurt even to type. Sorry about that!
Since when does choosing not to breed mean your life is “empty” or “miserable,” or that you have failed as a woman or as a human being? Some women are not cut out to be mothers, or simply have no desire, and choose not to, and are much happier for it. Is that so wrong?
I have 40-something female cousin who decided to concentrate on her career instead of a husband & family. She lost her job recently and now wonders if the PhD & career were worth this price.
The main reason for this trend is fear of divorce.
Many of these people have seen parents, siblings, friends, etc. go through nasty divorces and don’t want to live through the experience themselves.
Women often complain that there aren’t many available and suitable men, or that men are afraid of commitment. But it’s not fear of commitment. It’s fear of finding themselves separated from their children and sometimes having to pay for their wife’s second family. And, of course,women are afraid of being deserted, too - being traded in for a younger model. It’s a self-perpetuating trend.
No, it isn’t wrong. Individuals have the right not to have children, but SOCIETIES need babies. And babies need mothers and fathers. The western world is not reproducing itself.
Hey, careful. Some women in that age group mourn daily that they haven't found a man with whom to have children - and that could be related to any number of things including not being attracted to the men that have pursued. It's not always a happy situation and the women and men who celebrate their barreness, intentional or not, cause a lot of pain for those who would gladly have a family if God so wills.
Reverse Darwinism.
True, but there would still seem to me to be a corresponding number of childless dads in their 40’s.
“Women in their forties who elected not to have children are unfulfilled and are, what, cat farmers?”
Many if not most will deny that they are unfulfilled, but they know the truth. The worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves.
Gee. For me (I am 44, my husband 49) it was just because I had fertility problems and chose not to kill fertilized embryos via invitro fertilization. Cat farmer? LOL. Sure. I love my cats!! :-D.
That could be.
There is a supposed correlation between Schizophrenia and having an older father.
http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/older.htm
Conservative woman here and you'll have to ask my white, very conservative husband what he had to do with it? It DOES take two (the old fashioned way--lol). Infertility was our issue. Didn't meet a good conservative man until I was in my early thirties. I dumped all the liberal weirdos and very glad did not marry one. It was well worth the wait! Wish I could have met him earlier when I was younger and probably more fertile. But hey God has a plan. I just show up and do the footwork.
What happened is that these poor women were taught by leftist feminist ninnies that having a traditional marriage and family was undesirable. It was best to be more manly - university, career, etc. etc. Nobody told them that later in life many of them would wind up as empty and unfulfilled cat-farmers with no families. Oh well. Going along with the wrong crowd has consequences.
Gee. For me (I am 44, my husband 49) it was just because I had fertility problems and chose not to kill fertilized embryos via invitro fertilization. Cat farmer? LOL. Sure. I love my cats!! :-D.
You really think the only way a woman can be “fulfilled” is to pop out some babies? For some of us, the organ of fulfillment is in the skull, not the pelvis.
Excuse me, but I am a 40 year old childless female BY MY OWN CHOICE. Why did I choose not to have children? Because I grew up in a crap home that taught me NOTHING about love and family......of course, I'm just being nice about my childhood in that description.
I knew there was NO WAY I could be a good mother, let alone a good wife. It took me YEARS to heal, learn and correct myself.
Of course, now that I'm 40, I am now ready for marriage, but too old to start having kids.
So many times I have read on FR there are just some people who should NOT have children. I was one of those damaged girls. I'm healed, loved and ready for a family now.....just too damn old!
Well, maybe not for marriage, but too old to start having children.
God only knows what I could have done to my children if I had them when I sure as heck shouldn't have.
Exactly. I am over 40 female and childless. I am not ugly nor have I had abortions, there are ways to avoid becoming pregnant without using that! Have also been happily married to a great guy for 24 years.
I am a proud cat farmer!!! :-D.
Really? Wow such hostitlity from someone who has no idea what they are talking about. I love being able to go and do whatever whenever. My hubby and I share more than most couples do and I think having kids wouldn’t interfered with that. I truly don’t think it is anyone else’s buisness what someone does. Or as my Brother-in-law once said to us: “You have to have kids it just isn’t fair you aren’t as miserable as the rest of us are!”
give me a break. so tired of hearing this liberal agenda item. surprised someone on this board is dumb enough to fall for.
folks not marrying and having children is a complex issue and it does not simply boil down to one thing like weight. especially when much of the marrying occurs in 20s and 30s and folks are often still quite thin at this age. thin people with a judmental attitude that want to cast stones at overweight folks (when it is actually none of their business) ought to be considered a mental illness issue. i know it’s a spiritual matter with God.
it takes two to get married and men seem to be missing in this equation quite often these days. i am watching my sons....guys do guy things with guys and yet they can still find women to socialize and sleep with so it meets their need for intimacy. Women should ask themselves if they really want this type of arrangement or are they settling.
I have had one kid and I still plain on farming cats. My son is allergic to cats, but as soon as he is gone the cats are moving in. My mother had seven kids and would have a house full of cats if she had her way. She feeds every stray that comes around.
One reason why I don't date.
In many cases (not finding the right person, reproductive issues etc.) women can't have children, or are called by God/nature to be single or childless.
Others use laboratory poison disguised as medicine (i.e. the pill) to unnaturally prevent reproduction or - in some cases - kill their own offspring, as the pill often kills an embryo destined as a person-to-be.
In any case, there seems to be a lack of comprehension of the first post; here's an excerpt for the sake of clarity:
Nobody told them that later in life MANY of them would wind up as empty and unfulfilled cat-farmers with no families.
If you're happy and fulfilled and not among the "many of them," why become so bothered with an internet post?
Gosh such ignorance. Sorry to disappoint but if you need kids to fulfill yourself then that was a very selfish thing to do to a child. One should learn to fill their lives and not depend on someone else to do that for them.
They have substitute children, aka ‘pets’, to make up for the loss of any children they won’t have. And some of those women have so many cats it does look like a cat farm.
And what percentage of those not having children are of the Caucasian persuasion? I bet its higher than the diverse crowd or the latinas!
And just think how green it is not to have children!
Mrs. Jobu & I tried for many years, but not only did I have, ahem, slow swimmers, but she had ovarian cyst problems...then she had to have a semi-emergency hysterectomy 3 years ago. Cue The Stork Nazi: “NO KIDS FOR YOU!”
To echo other childless Freepers’ sentiments, we have a full life even though we have no kids...we both work full time, also a side catering biz, she has a big family, and we are blessed with many wonderful friends...and of course our two lovable dogs (a Bernese and a Golden). Life is good...even with ObaMao in office.
I have a grown son now and was 22 when he was born and it was not planned...I really never wanted children, not out of being selfish, I just never felt a need to be a mother.
I am happily married and have been for the last 13 years and enjoy and am very content with my life. I know that comes from my faith in GOD first, then my spouse, and family.
I always enjoyed being around older people even when I was a child! My mother use to say to me all the time..Don’t you want to go play with the other kids, rather than being with the *Big People*? I never did...
cat farmers... tooo damn funny
For some of us, the organ of fulfillment is in the skull, not the pelvis.
&&&
Wow! A little prejudice there on your part toward child bearing women.
“You really think the only way a woman can be “fulfilled” is to pop out some babies?”
No. But children are part of it. That’s what we were made, in part, to do. Is that all of why we’re here? Of course not. But to deny the importance of children is folly.
As I noted earlier, some of the worst lies people tell are the ones they tell themselves.
Seems to me women can do both. I do. Sarah Palin does. A childless woman has not lived life to the fullest.
“Sorry to disappoint but if you need kids to fulfill yourself then that was a very selfish thing to do to a child.”
I was perfectly happy before children. And am so much more so with them. To deny that children are an important part of our personal fulfillment, our mental health, and destiny is simply denial of the truth.
Why have kids when you can party into your 50s an die alone?
With out a doubt.
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