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More Women Than Ever Are Childless, Census Finds
New York Times ^ | August 18, 2008 | Katie Zezima

Posted on 08/19/2008 6:54:24 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: census; childfree; demographics; genx; hispanics; women
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To: 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.”

I think the causation goes both ways, though. It’s possible that Maureen Dowd, for example, would not be such a bitter liberal if she had gotten married and become a mother. A funny thread about her hating Christmas, unlike her more traditional female relatives, is at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1294490/posts .


21 posted on 08/19/2008 7:08:41 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: MrB
You have listed a good chunk. Add in the increase of homosexuality and the whole 'living together' rather than marriage and we can see the beginnings of the downfall of the U.S. as if it were a repeat of Rome.

Immigrants will replace natural-born citizens. The whole 'melting pot' ideal that America was, is changing to segregated cultures that don't want to be "Americans" but maintain the identity of whatever country they came from with their own 'cultural identity' and language and dress and food...and on and on...

22 posted on 08/19/2008 7:09:39 AM PDT by KriegerGeist (Lifetime member of the "Christian-Radical-Right-Wing-Kook-Factor")
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To: MrB

Completely true. We need leaders who will declare this war and identify the enemy clearly.


23 posted on 08/19/2008 7:10:51 AM PDT by ecomcon
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To: reaganaut1

And Islam will inherit the earth...


24 posted on 08/19/2008 7:10:56 AM PDT by Boagenes (I'm your huckleberry, that's just my game.)
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To: reaganaut1

If we need a phrase to describe these people I would suggest

EDs - Evolutionary Dead ends.


25 posted on 08/19/2008 7:11:22 AM PDT by DManA
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To: Geist Krieger

I didn’t think I missed those -

see “normalization of homosexuality”
and “promotion of promiscuity”
and denigration of the traditional family (anti-marriage)


26 posted on 08/19/2008 7:11:51 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: reaganaut1
"Women with advanced degrees are more likely to be childless, the study found. "

Note how the study doesn't look deeper into cultural phenomena like religious faith and political leanings. Another brilliant NYT reporter who never had an original thought in her head.

We all know that:

Christian women have more children than tatooed, pierced babes on the West and left coasts. In surburban San Diego, where we live, there are huge numbers of college-educated white women having three and four children (Mrs Tom H and I have three). Ditto for the Mormons.

Conservative women have more children than liberals.

So this conclusion that "smarter" women correlates with few children is pure cr-p. Look a little deeper and learn why it really is happening.

27 posted on 08/19/2008 7:12:46 AM PDT by tom h
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To: qam1; ItsOurTimeNow; PresbyRev; Fraulein; StoneColdGOP; Clemenza; m18436572; InShanghai; xrp; ...
Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.

28 posted on 08/19/2008 7:13:40 AM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: ecomcon
We need leaders who will declare this war and identify the enemy clearly.

RAISE those leaders.

1 Chron 12:32
Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.

29 posted on 08/19/2008 7:14:09 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: MrB

How much does infertility factor into these numbers? It isn’t always a choice.


30 posted on 08/19/2008 7:14:29 AM PDT by Jaded (does it really need a sarcasm tag?)
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To: tom h
Conservative women have more children than liberals.

Now, don't turn them over to liberals it indoctrinate (educate).

31 posted on 08/19/2008 7:15:16 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: reaganaut1
Ms. Dye said, the data show that women of the baby boom generation are continuing to transform the American family.

And they're getting plenty of help from abortion providers too!

Odd that the study doesn't mention fewer women getting pregnant.

Is this the "change" The One is always talking about?

32 posted on 08/19/2008 7:15:25 AM PDT by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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To: Alter Kaker; reaganaut1
Waiter, can I please have some dime store eugenics with my coffee?

If anything, she understated the magnitude of the apocalyptic catastrophe which is racing towards us at light speed.

Prepare for the worst folks - things are about to get very, very bad.

Circa 2020, the USA will crumble beneath the weight of the demographic imperative, and there's no telling what will emerge to replace it [or even if anything will emerge at all].

33 posted on 08/19/2008 7:15:41 AM PDT by KayEyeDoubleDee (const Tag &referenceToConstTag)
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To: Jaded

Adopt.

In the present culture war, it is far more important to pass on your values than your genes.


34 posted on 08/19/2008 7:16:21 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: 4yearlurker
I've known several women that admitted they wouldn't have a child because it would "destroy their body."

At least one married a man (who's wife had died) with young children already.

35 posted on 08/19/2008 7:17:53 AM PDT by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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To: Geist Krieger

You have listed a good chunk. Add in the increase of homosexuality and the whole ‘living together’ rather than marriage and we can see the beginnings of the downfall of the U.S. as if it were a repeat of Rome.

Did Rome REALLY fall because of homosexuality???? I think that is a myth.


36 posted on 08/19/2008 7:18:10 AM PDT by napscoordinator
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To: reaganaut1

I agree with you totally. I knew some charming young ladies in college (we’re all 51 now) who were as traditional as any gal back then. They fell for the women’s movement expectation of career before men or children, and today they are accomplished but are childless, loveless, and basically lonely. Only very few will admit they made a mistake. I’ll see how they are at the 30th reunion later this year.

Mo Dowd is probably another casualty.

She makes me laugh. Only today has she finally realized that men don’t want to marry ball-busting women.


37 posted on 08/19/2008 7:18:35 AM PDT by tom h
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To: unixfox

It couldn’t be that women are giving away what used to be precious and MEN see no need to marry. Sex is free, cheap and easy and viewed as a means only of physical satisfaction, rather than life.

How many women are childless because they had early abortions, STDs, or waited too long?


38 posted on 08/19/2008 7:18:53 AM PDT by tiki (True Christians will not deliberately slander or misrepresent others or their beliefs)
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To: 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.

hear hear!

I HIGHLY encourage libs, feminazis, pro-aborts and anyone who thinks children are a "drain on the planet" to abstain from reproducing.
39 posted on 08/19/2008 7:19:43 AM PDT by Zechariah_8_13 ("If we give the bureaucrats our children, we may as well give them everything else." - J. G. Machen)
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To: reaganaut1
College educated mother of three ... oops, I guess I missed the memo about not having kids ;-)

But, so many of my college friends have either one child or none at all. I do feel sorry for them, especially the gals that waited until they were 40 to “try.”

Gals my age got the impression through the 1980s that due to infertility treatments we didn't have to worry about our age so much.

We were sold a bill of goods.

Many of my kids’ friends’ moms are about 10 years younger and in our community the younger families are getting bigger. Three and four children are common with a few of five or six. These are good people. One of my cousins, mom of five, was told that families like hers ought to have bigger families b/c they would raise the children right.

Yes, many gals my age missed out, but our younger sisters and cousins seem to have learned from our mistakes.

40 posted on 08/19/2008 7:20:13 AM PDT by Cloverfarm (Children are a blessing ...)
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