Number of childless American women in their 40s has risen sharply since 1970s

The Washington Post ^ | 2010-06-25 | Donna St. George

[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.

[RipSawyer]

I remember when people actually had that attitude toward me because I was still a single MAN at 23! I was actually asked point blank more than once,”What is wrong with you”. I finally got married two days after my 28th birthday. By then everyone had given up on me! Times have certainly changed since then, most people consider a 28 year old man too young to have any sense now.

[mylife]

Here Here.. I have always been solitary, but not to the total exclusion of society.

[1010RD]

Cat pee is no longer an insuperable problem.

Typical redneck. It doesn't make good soup, even with the microwaves.

[mylife]

Ewwwww!

[Richard Kimball]

I think that anybody who doesn’t want kids has some mental issues..

Kevin, I think you just hung this on yourself:

[1010RD]

IQs association with poverty is often ignored, but wholly prevalent.

Poverty, for the most part, is intelligence related. Bad decisions compounded.

[Richard Kimball]

I may not have expressed myself well. Low IQ people are reproducing much more than high IQ people, particularly in the US and Europe. The Eugenics movement in the US and Europe prior to World War 2 was quite open about their desire to get low IQ people to quit reproducing. This movement was particularly strong in Nazi Germany. After WW 2, the eugenics movement went underground, primarily because of the stories that came back revealing Hitler's mass executions of disabled people and low IQ individuals. Of course, these executions also included Jews, Catholics and any who opposed the aims of the Reich.

[Richard Kimball]

IQs association with poverty is often ignored, but wholly prevalent.

True. Forrest Gump, in real life, would have been much more likely to end up broke and homeless than being an independently wealthy Alabama graduate, Purple Heart decorated veteran that owned a string of shrimp boats and millions of dollars in Apple stock and mowed the grass at his old high school because he liked it.

[TopQuark]

"What happened is that these poor women were taught by leftist feminist ninnies"

It is not that simple. The trend has started in the second third of 1800s and was most pronounced in France. The wave is only now reaching our shores. It's a crisis of Western Civilization.

[1010RD]

Hence, the best selling book and movie. ;-]

[KevinDavis]

I’m just stating the obvious..

[Clemenza]

Not everyone in the world is fit for parenthood, and many folks in the past who had kids “because it was expected of them” made their children (and themselves) miserable. However, we are still subsidizing the production of litters by those who REALLY shouldn’t be having children, and certain religious groups also work to encourage such people.

[donna]

Maybe it’s those flat heads infants get from laying in the carrier all day at day care.

[RipSawyer]

“Not gonna say it. Wouldn’t be prudent. Nope.”
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

No idea what you mean, really, not a clue, nope, not a clue. Can’t figure it out at all, honest.

[LowOiL]

White liberal women in their 40’s.

Nope, my sister is as conservative Christian as it gets. Pretty as picture (class beauty).

She just didn't find a good Conservative man. She is still looking.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Women who missed the natural childbearing time to have children, as a conscious choice, may not realize the emptiness in the midst of that time... it will hit in 20-30 years... at the end of it all.

This is nothing against those who know they are unfit to be a parent or those who cannot have children, just those that chose not to because something else is much more important. Same goes for women who choose to put their young children in childcare at six weeks. When it is too late, the light will go on.

[Richard Kimball]

Good. It means you’ve got a healthy mind. I, on the other hand, passed the psychopath test. Really. When I heard the question, I thought it was a trick, it was so obvious.

[RipSawyer]

You know of course that I lied;0)

[annelizly]

yeah but what if their sperm isn’t as healthy as they age?

[Richard Kimball]

Uh-oh. Welcome to psycho-world.