It’s Your Choice In today’s society, women are often expected to have children. However, if women choose to not have children or limit themselves to only one, they’re judged for those decisions in unfair ways. Who are we to criticise people’s choices when it comes to child bearing? In the articles, “One and Done” and “Why Women Choose Not to Have Children”, both authors discuss disapproval from society regarding limiting child birth. Lauren Sandler, author of “One and Done,” argues society’s view that children without siblings are troublemakers or damaged. Sophie Gilbert wrote the article, “Why Women Choose Not to Have Children”, and she explains that women shouldn’t be shamed because they don’t want children. Although both authors approach …show more content…
Both authors try to convince readers that logical thinking is the best way to address having a child. Sandler explains that, financially, it makes more sense to have one child. She suggests that if your earnings aren’t high, there’s more incentive to have one child or none at all. She quotes a couple that point out that it’s already expensive paying for their one child’s sporting events and equipment, never mind paying for another. The author further suggests that including how the parents feel themselves about having another child is crucial. Sandler implies that if the parents aren’t going to be happy, they shouldn’t have another kid. Gilbert enlightens readers that why some women don’t want a child may be due to their lack of desire. She quotes an author that explains she can’t have a child until she feels an urge to have one. The author implies that women shouldn’t have children just because society says it’s the norm. They should do it because they want to and can handle everything that comes with having a child. This is very similar to Sandler’s point of view when she addresses the non-rational event where parents don’t have children for themselves or because they want to. Gilbert contests that as women “start weighing their options, they soon wise up to the fact they’re not getting enough recompense for their labors”
The changing position of women in today’s society is in part responsible for the increase in family diversity. Women are now mens equals and can become very senior in their chosen professions through hard work and dedication. Because of this, women are less likely to want to have children early on in their careers and prevent themselves from getting pregnant until they have established themselves with a distinguished career. This trend is giving rise to smaller families of dual earners and thus increasing the family diversity in today’s society. Also, some of these women focus so heavily on their careers they never actually find a partner. And so, when they feel ready to have children they either go through the IVF process or adopt a child, again widening the diverse family types in Britain’s society today.
Morality and Duties: There are many reasons women choose to seek an abortion but “one of the most common reasons is that they do not have room in their life just then to be a mother, [and] they know if they continue the pregnancy they will not be able to give it up” (p. 312). Little strongly believes that this is a “perfectly sensible, and often wise,” decision (p. 312). Before morally judging a woman based on her decision, one must learn to “appreciate the different moral contours involved with entering, existing in and exiting a relationship” (p. 312). A woman’s morals cannot be judged given she “may have good reason to decline,” gestation — for example a woman can argue that her reason is “more [of] a refusal to create than a decision to destroy” (p. 30). It must be recognized that “ [being] asked
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
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
Often condemned as one of the primary societal problems of today, non-marital childbirth has been the subject of many sociologist’s explorations in an attempt to understand its rapid increase and growth in desirability. In their book Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage, Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas delve into the underlying reasons for the increase in non-martial child bearing, especially among women in low-socioeconomic communities. Through their two-and-a-half-year study, in which they conducted by interviewing over one hundred single mothers living in Philadelphia and Camden, Edin and Kefalas strove to understand why poor, single women were purposefully getting pregnant. Nearly eight years after Promises
This article “One and Done” is an excerpt from her book “One and Only” and the reviews of this book come from extremely credible sources such as the New York Times, therefore establishing her credibility. The author’s purpose for writing this piece is to argue that having one child is not “detrimental” to the child psychologically, and only-children are not different than kids with siblings. This piece was written July 7, 2010 so the research and studies are very up to date. The main points of this article started out with the argument of why Sandler herself decided to have one child, and this is based on how “the economy is sluggish… and raising kids cost a bundle. She describes the effects of the recession on the number of children women bear, and points out that women are having less and less children because of their high costs. Sandler then goes on to discuss why people urge families to have more than one child, and she uses personal experience of a cashier in a store to exemplify the pressure of having more kids. Sandler investigates why there is such an aversion to have only one child, “single children are perceived as spoiled, selfish, solitary misfits,” because this is such a believable stereotype, parents are pressured to have multiple children because they “don’t want to do that to their child.” Sandler uses the study by Granville Stanley Hall to act as a counterargument
Women are told motherhood is a possible consequence of their willingness to engage in sexual intercourse should they fail to use contraceptives effectively. This argument implies the role of sexual intercourse for women as the obligation to carry their fetus to term, which is more of a dictatorial argument of the role of a woman. It lacks accountability towards the role and responsibility of the father in these situations, suggesting they are not bound by the same duty. Similar to the sexism this debate seemingly overlooks, irrational thinking also cloud the way of logical
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.
There are many reasons and scenarios to why people may have difficulties in raising a child. Financial reasons may be one of the major reasons people consider abortions or adoptions. It cost a fairly decent amount of money to raise a child and provide for it. In some tragic cases women decide to have an abortion or an adoption due to rape. In such a case it is almost conceivable to consider that as being an exception. Premarital relations and teenage pregnancies are other reasons as to why one would choose either of these alternatives. No teenager wants to be a parent or be forced to grow up while they are still in their youth. In today’s society, the
Betty Rollin asserts in her article "Motherhood: Who Needs It?" the prejudice women face deriving from societies unwritten laws. The unwritten laws are described as the Motherhood Myth:"The idea of having babies is something that all normal women instinctively want and need and will enjoy doing they just think they do." Society believes the drive to have babies is emplaced on women since birth. But in fact, the experiences a women has shapes her to have babies not some biological magic. This biological idea is similar to saying that all men want to work and put food on the table because they were born with the drive. No one person has similar experiences in life.
In the article entitled "Unmarried with Children" the authors present the findings of a study which they spent years interviewing 162 low-income mothers in eight poor neighborhoods in Philadelphia and its suburb, Camden, New Jersey. (Edin and Kefalas, 34). "We spent five years chatting over kitchen tables and on front steps, giving mothers like Jen the opportunity to speak to the question so many affluent Americans ask about them: Why do they have children while still young and unmarried when they will face such an uphill struggle to support them" (Edin at al, 33). Their goal was to paint a portrait of these women's lives from the early days of their intimate relationships, through pregnancy, birth and beyond to tell us why they frequently
Today, in a world of the “postmodern family” the traditional lines of family structure are blurred. Children may come from diverse types of homes, or a couple, married or not may choose to have no children and consider
In this essay I will be talking about Abortion. How would you feel if someone took away your life without giving you any choice? If we are allowed to murder unborn children, then why is it illegal to murder other humans? Unborn babies has the right to be protected as anyone else. Abortion has become common everywhere and it’s not the right thing. There are other ways of dealing with an unexpected pregnancy other than Abortion. Imagine not even getting to chance to live. Well babies don’t have a choice when they are born. It all depends on the mother whether she wants to do abortion on her baby. The reason why many women do abortion is due to not having enough money to raise the child or being raped. However, there’s always other option than taking an innocent baby’s life away. The reason why I think women shouldn’t abort is human qualities, religious values, and estimations of profound quality.
Within the article the author Kelly Welch has explained why she believes that being child free can be a choice and being happy without one can be possible. Within the article “Childfree by Choice” the author says “Some people feel their lives are complete and full without children.”(Childfree by Choice, Kelly W., p.7). She says that having a child will not be required to make a person’s life feel fulfilled, being happy without one is a choice that can be made. Also, the author says “For instance, a close friend of mine desperately desired to be a mother but because she is a genetic carrier of an always-fatal type of muscular dystrophy, she opted to remain childless.”(Childfree by Choice, Kelly W., p.7). Her friend wants to be a mother but because she is a carrier of a muscle
"Voluntary motherhood implies a new morality—a vigorous, constructive, liberated morality. That morality will, first of all, prevent the submergence of womanhood into motherhood. It will set its face against the conversion of women into mechanical maternity and toward the creation of a new race." (Sanger, Woman and the New Race)