According to data from the Urban Institute, birth rates among 20-year-old women declined 15% between 2007 and 2012. Research shows that only 1/3rd of couples are choosing to start families. There are many reasons as to why birthrates have decreased. For newlywed couples who are looking to start a family, money and debt may play a serious role. On the other hand, as more women graduate college the need for advancing in their career outweighs the need for children. For others, the idea of kids, in general, may be unsettling. Finally, there is a growing sentiment that having children may be the selfish thing to do. To start off, one factor that plays into couples having fewer children is the couple’s financial status. The U.S Department of …show more content…
Second and Third-wave feminism might have played a huge role in this cause. Women in the late 1960’s fought for the right to legal abortions and access to safe contraceptives. Therefore, women in the U.S find themselves with more control over when they have children, and may put off the process indefinitely. When comparing First and Third world Countries there is a dramatic comparison between how many children a family has. The U.S is fortunate enough be able to provide more forms of birth control to further delay the process. There is also a growing trend among more women to choose further education over children. In comparison, the female to male ratio has increased dramatically since 1970. Now more women in the workplace no longer feel the need to be financially dependent on their spouses as compared to women in the early 1960’s. Women aged mid 20’s to early 30’s are finding themselves waiting longer for kids and even marriage. With less pressure from society, there are women who are at liberty to advance in their careers without the need for children being immediate or at …show more content…
Those who replied stated that our generations, like the ones before us, have done irreversible damage to the earth. To have children while understanding that we have used up a massive amount of natural resources makes one think about the type of future that their offspring may end up facing. A study by the World Wildlife Fund warned that humans are plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to support life. With another issue that may play into this is the concern of overpopulation. With the chance that overpopulation may lead to poverty, over- consumption and damage to our oceans and
152) required their reproduction and choosing to be childless was “non-normative” (p. 152). One participant believed that choosing to remain childless would be more readily accepted by those that did not intimately know him and viewed more negatively by those closest to him (p. 151). I feel this is a very apt assessment of society’s views on childlessness; it is easy to justify the projection of one’s personal beliefs onto someone that we closely know as opposed to a stranger. However, I also believe it depends on the projecting person’s ideas about social norms. I know several single and married couples that have decided to either delay childbearing or refrain altogether and I find no fault in their decision. I do not necessarily believe that it is imperative a person and/or couple have children. Nevertheless, I believe the subject belongs in the “Spouses-Only Area” (Hammond, Cheney, & Pearsey, 2015), and is not one I should pass judgment on. People should be allowed to make a decision that best suits them and not judged or pressured to fit some preconceived mold or
Because of achieving a higher level of educational attainment, some married couples choose to remain childless. The household childlessness rate is strongly linked to married couples with high educational level. For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicated that the proportion of couples aged 45-49 years who were childless increased with higher level of educational attainment. The statistics highlighted that the highest proportion of childless married couples were among those with a bachelor degree or higher (20%), compared with 12% of those with an undergraduate or associate diploma. Couples with no post-school qualifications had the lowest level of childlessness (9%). It is seen that the delaying of child
It has been shown that there is a positive correlation between family planning and a woman’s level of schooling and lower fertility rates (Joshi & Schultz, 2013, p.161). Hypotheses for the decline in fertility rates are both that higher educated women may have more skills to assess and seek out contraception, as well as the ability to choose employment over having children (Joshi & Schultz, 2013, p.161). They also may simply be unable to attend school pregnant or must drop out to care for their children (HIV Prevalence, 2010,
She argues that there used to be a significantly higher amount of unwanted teenage pregnancies compared to now. In particular, in the United States in 1957, there were “more than 97 out of every 1,000 women aged fifteen to nineteen gave birth. Today, only half as many teenagers bear children” (p. 268). Raising children is a very time consuming and expensive part of our lives.
Through the use of personal anecdotes, McKibben argues that adults today should not be pressured to have a large family or create the stigma of an only child being a spoiled brat. He begins his essay with a trip to the doctor's office in which he is thrown an abundance of questions about the circumstances of having more children, for example, “Would more children be in your picture now if your financial circumstances improved significantly?” (119). By the use of these various personal anecdotes, this supports his argument of plausible reasons why adults decide not to have children and why it is better to have a few. Adults in the 21st century are just too busy, are career focused, or are simply not ready to take that route. He emphasizes that
During the mid and late 1960’s in United States, women, especially low-income women, had more children than they preferred. Research attributed this rise to the lack of access to contraceptives especially in lower income families leading to the difference in the economic affordability of women to have more children than desired. Evidence also showed unintended pregnancies or closely spaced pregnancies to pose adverse maternal and child health outcomes such as delayed prenatal care, premature births, and unfavorable mental and physical health effects on children. Additionally, unintended pregnancies, especially among teenagers, led to more poverty, increased dependence on publically funded services, incomplete education, and decreased ability
THE NO-BABY BOOM, by Anne Kingston, published in March 2014 was about the social infertility rates of twenty-first century women. Kingston uses credible evidence that shows that she wants to promote awareness and change the perception of how society views the topic of infertility. The way Kingston presents the information to the reader is by providing statistics, personal stories, and her personal opinion on the idea of the “childless” mother. Readers this is most likely to appeal to is people who are struggling with infertility. The concern and values throughout this article is the infertility rate of women and the way it affects their life styles. The reason that Kingston published this article is to let people become more aware of the
These days, we have a serious problem along with the population growth. Overpopulation causes lots of different impacts on earth. One major problem is pollution that people make. I feel very sorry for our planet since I was more likely to participate in the works that might cause the earth sick. However, I am now concerned about our climate changes which are the result of our human activities. Also, I decided to change my lifestyle as an eco-friendly person after reading articles from two different authors. The articles, “I am the Population Problem” by Lisa Hymas and “Meet my Kid, an Adorable Environmental Disaster” by Jeff Feldman, share some similar basic ideas while they have some key differences. Both Hymas and Feldman
However, Blackstone and Stewart (2016) provide lucidity through comprehensive considerations of previous research, which examined the process by which individuals decide to have children, with the intent to provide insight into many individuals’ decision to remain childfree. Furthermore, Blackstone and Stewart (2016) continued to identify insufficiencies in prior research throughout their article, as they recognized that many former researchers primarily focused on women’s experiences rather than men’s and typically explored why couples’ have chosen to remain childfree rather than how they have reached their decision to remain childfree (Agrillo & Nelini, 2008; Clausen, 2002; Gillespie, 2003; Houseknecht, 1982; Letherby, 2002; Edin & Kefalas, 2011; Hertz, 2006; Mollen, 2006; Mueller & Yoder, 1999; Park, 2005; Settle & Brumley, 2014; Lunneborg,
The increased percentage of unwed mothers in America during 1990s is largely due to the females born in 1970’s. They were influenced by their parents, who have been through the World War II. One major influence of World War II on America society is the increase in female status. During the war, many men, who used to be labor in economic, were sent to the battlefield and this lack of labor in America economic was fix by accepting women in factory. Thus, those women born in 70’s believe that they don’t need help from men to raise a baby for the experience of their parents and grand
After reading the article, I have come to the opinion that childfree people have legit reasons to not conceive or birth children and their reasons are not just completely black & white choices for their decision. In the article “Childfree by Choice” by Kelly J. Welch, goes well in depth in the increasing growth of young people deciding to not have children. The article brings in factual evidence and intriguing viewpoints that percentages of young or childless adults in modern has a high jump compares to it’s past recordings. The evidence in the article shows multiple reasons theses people chosen this option, but brings up three prominent and logical opinions on what lead to them choosing to not have children. I understand and relate to this topic more than anything else, for I am a young adult myself trying to find my place in this world and one of the main things in my head that constantly comes up is the potential to become a parent later on down the future. Also I am witnessing an increase of my former high school peers becoming parents at very young ages, where an average citizen would think these next generation has much more to give than being a parent right now. So with this thought into my brain I taken the three reasons that interest me to why some people don’t want kids, which are timing, career, and personality.
Marginally less than 4 million children are conceived in the United States every year, and the points of interest of how, when, and where they arrive are continually moving. All out birth rate is an assessment of the normal number of births a gathering of ladies have over their lifetime. The U.S. birth rate has been declining subsequent to 2007.
The first new certainty is “The Collapsing Birthrate in the Developed World”. Drucker discusses about how birthrates were no longer steadily increasing for populations, but were instead declining. In some parts of the developed world, the birth rate has fallen below the necessary level for population reproduction. Japan may be the most noticeable one in this declining birthrate. However, the decline in birthrate can be delayed or unnoticed due to immigration. Mexicans immigrants for example, have kept their birth rates around what they were in Mexico. Drucker then talks about how the declining birthrate would result in tremendous changes like government instability being the norm in developed countries, or the concept of retirement might dramatically
In the early 90’s, studies have shown that teen pregnancies occur on a regularly basis and has been severely increasing (Newsweek: Birth rates in U.S, 1991-96). As a result, this brings out a wrong impression of women to society.
Teen pregnancy is a very controversial social issue and the vast majority of Americans consider the outrageous rate of teen pregnancies a severe issue, certainly a problematic occurrence that is believed to be a moral decline in our country. Teenagers are physiologically capable of reproducing but not emotionally or financially prepared to be parents at such a tender age. Through various research studies a plethora of determinants has pin pointed teens unprecedented pregnancies. One cause of this problem is the apparent indication of social separation or disadvantage. Within this issue you would find poverty, single parent households, educational disadvantages on the parents behalf, a lack family/parental support, and unemployment. A child’s educational performance, inappropriate sexual acts, and inferior apprehensions about their futures play a vital role in teen pregnancies as well. Amongst the listed disadvantages the three that take precedent are lacks of family communication, sexual abuse, and poverty. Furthermore, teen mothers do not fit the ideal ideology of the normative scheduling of motherhood, therefore, ultimately resulting in negative consequences for them and society. What needs to be understood is, as to why the numbers of teens are becoming parents at such a vernal age.