More Women Than Ever Are Childless, Census Finds

New York Times ^ | August 18, 2008 | Katie Zezima

[reaganaut1]

Women are waiting longer to have children, and more women than ever are choosing not to have children at all, according to a new Census Bureau report.

Twenty percent of women ages 40 to 44 have no children, double the level of 30 years ago, the report said; and women in that age bracket who do have children have fewer than ever — an average of 1.9 children, compared with the median of 3.1 children in 1976.

“A lot of women are not having any children,” said Jane Lawler Dye, a Census Bureau researcher who did the report, which looked at women of childbearing age in 2006. “It used to be sort of expected that there was a phase of life where you had children, and a lot of women aren’t doing that now,” Ms. Dye said.

Women with advanced degrees are more likely to be childless, the study found. Of women 40 to 44 with graduate or professional degrees, 27 percent are childless, compared with 18 percent of women who did not continue their education beyond high school, the data show.

The numbers are consistent with a 2006 report Ms. Dye issued on the same subject. While year-by-year change is slow, Ms. Dye said, the data show that women of the baby boom generation are continuing to transform the American family.

Hispanic women are the only group bucking the trends found in the study, averaging 2.3 children each by their 40s. The number of children a Hispanic woman has decreases sharply, however, depending on how many generations her family has lived in the United States, the data show.

[reaganaut1]

Because 27% of women with graduate or professional degrees are childless, I will be less likely to encourage my daughter than my sons to pursue education beyond college or be career-oriented. The decisions will be theirs, of course.

Since intelligence, like other human traits, has a strong hereditary components, intelligent women having fewer children reduces the average level of intelligence. It would be better to have social policies that encourage them to have more kids than to throw money at public schools in vain efforts to close achievement "gaps".

[martin_fierro]

FREERIDERS!

[ken21]

the u.s. birth rate reached 1.7 in the late 1970’s due to the feminist movement. boomer women who came of child-bearing age in the mid-sixties didn’t have kids.

then, in the early 1980’s the burger flippers, maids and landscapers arrived from across the border.

[gimme1ibertee]

“More Women Are Childless”

Not if they have husbands!! LOLOL

[MrB]

Social policies today are intentionally anti-family.

The commies intend to dissolve the traditional family in order to inspire more loyalty to the state, ala “1984”.

See the “Communist Goals for America” written into the Congressional Record in 1963.

Anti-family culture is all around us.

Every issue that the left promotes, and has infiltrated into our society, has the effect, AND THE INTENT, of destroying the family:

easy divorce
denigration of the role of fathers
welfare (replacing fathers with the state as provider)
denigration of respect for tradition and the wisdom of the aged
erosion of parental authority
emphasis on state education and raising of children
promotion of materialism and high taxes, forcing mothers to work
promotion of women’s “fulfillment” in the career fields instead of motherhood

abortion
alleviation of other consequences for (ie, promoting) sexual promiscuity
normalization of homosexuality, and soon “adult-child” sex
pornography
promotion of obscenity as “free speech”
feminism and gender blending

discrediting and “socializing” of religion/Christianity
discrediting Biblical authority in favor of “intellectual maturity” (Man wiser than God)

[unixfox]

It could’nt mean that MEN are waiting longer to get married, now could it.

[Alter Kaker]

Since intelligence, like other human traits, has a strong hereditary components, intelligent women having fewer children reduces the average level of intelligence.

Waiter, can I please have some dime store eugenics with my coffee?

[pnh102]

If it is mainly liberal women who are less likely to have children, then I think this should be a trend to encourage, not discourage.

[MrB]

Why get married?

The “sexual revolution” removed women’s requirements of men for marriage, stability, and character in order to have access to sex.

[NEWwoman]

You are spot on.

Also, taxes are so much higher that it is harder for one parent to stay home and watch the children.

Policies and courts seemed to be against the fathers - and the presence of a father is a great influence on a child’s success and likelihood of staying in school.

And schools seem to be pushing propaganda instead of teaching the basics. It’s quite a hostile environment to raise kids these days.

[MrB]

The left has openly stated, however, that they intend to be child”free” and let conservatives take on the challenges of raising children.

They intend to “procreate” their ideology by indoctrination in public schools - an openly stated goal.

[Alouette]

Maybe I should change my tagline to “Having all the kids & grandkids that liberals won’t have”

[Malacoda]

100% correct BUMP.

[reaganaut1]

Where is the error in my reasoning? Are you denying that intelligence is partly inherited?

[tom h]

"Since intelligence, like other human traits, has a strong hereditary components, intelligent women having fewer children reduces the average level of intelligence. It would be better to have social policies that encourage them to have more kids than to throw money at public schools in vain efforts to close achievement "gaps"."

While I and others do not disagree with you, your thesis above assumes that women with M.S. degrees are more intelligent than those without. There I differ to a degree.

Yes, a woman with an advanced degree in computer science or physics is of superior intelligence, and not having offspring would be a loss.

But a woman with a M.S. in sociology or women's studies is probably of average or lower-than-average intellect. No loss there.

[Malacoda]

We also live in a society that promotes the instant gratification of any whim or desire over self-denial and self-sacrifice — both of which are required to raise children. Children are promoted/seen as a drag or an anchor, rather than a labor of love and a joy.

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

FREERIDER PING!!!!

[Blue Turtle]

Did this study include ILLEGAL ALIENS?

[4yearlurker]

I guess these liberal cows didn’t want to be “punished” with raising a child. Also some probably are living their alternative life style.

[tom h]

One could conclude, therefore, that:

1) Intelligent women make better choices, and logically conclude that children are more of a burden than a blessing, confirming years of leftist thinking.

2) Intelligent women are more concerned with income and career than children, and by choosing the former they just end up childless as a consequence.

3) Women with advanced degrees are less intelligent, and therefore make a bad choice by not having children.

4) Women with advanced degrees have been brainwashed by 8-10 years of Government schools, and deliberately decide to remain childless because children are a burden.

I think we all know that the most likely explanations are 2) and 4).