WHY ARE MORE WOMEN CHOOSING NOT TO HAVE KIDS?
Why are more women choosing not to have kids?
Tags familiesgender
University University of Chicago
A new book examines the complicated history of motherhood and choosing to be childfree.
More and more women in the United States are saying no to motherhood; in 2023, the US fertility rate reached the lowest number on record.
But the idea of non-motherhood is actually not a new phenomenon—nor did it come out of the modern feminist movement.
For centuries, women have made choices about limiting births and whether to become mothers at all. This history is documented in a new book, Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother (Seal Press, 2023), by University of Chicago scholar Peggy O’Donnell Heffington.
Heffington writes about the historic trends of non-motherhood as well as the modern factors that are playing a role in women’s choices to not have children today—from a lack of structural support in the workplace, to a national law for paid maternity leave and the sheer lack of affordability. She writes that if these trends continue, American millennials could become the largest child-free cohort in history.
In this episode of the Big Brains podcast, Heffington digs into her book and why more women are choosing to be childfree:
No, really: 50-60M American adults may be childfree
April 6th, 2023
Posted by Kim Ward-Michigan State
"States' restrictions on reproductive health care may result in many people being forced to have children despite not wanting them, which is very concerning,"
New research confirms a past finding: one in five Michigan adults don’t want children and are therefore are childfree.
“We found that 20.9% of adults in Michigan do not want children, which closely matches our earlier estimate of 21.6%, and means that over 1.6 million people in Michigan are childfree,” says Jennifer Watling Neal, professor of psychology at Michigan State University and coauthor of the study.
“Michigan is demographically similar to the United States, so this could mean 50 million to 60 million Americans are child-free.”
The new study in PLOS ONE attempts to replicate the original study by using the same methods, but with a new sample of people. The researchers used data from a representative sample of 1,000 adults who completed the university’s State of the State Survey, conducted by the university’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research. To avoid any risk of cherry-picking results, the researchers preregistered the study by recording in advance exactly how the study would be conducted and what they expected to find.
“Many adults are childfree, and there do not seem to be differences by age, education, or income,” says Zachary Neal, associate professor of psychology at and coauthor of the study. “However, being childfree is somewhat more common among adults who identify as male, white, or who have always been single.”
Some express concern that childfree adults will regret the decision not to have children, especially later in life. But Watling Neal explains “we found no evidence that older child-free adults experience any more life regret than older parents. In fact, older parents were slightly more likely to want to change something about their life.”
Because so many people are childfree, the researchers say this group warrants more attention, particularly as reproductive rights are being eroded.
“States’ restrictions on reproductive health care may result in many people being forced to have children despite not wanting them, which is very concerning,” Watling Neal says.
The research team is now examining whether abortion restrictions affect adults’ choice to be childfree and are expanding their work beyond Michigan to include other states and countries.
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