More American women choosing not to have children
The American dream was once defined as owning a home and raising a family. But the dream needs a new definition for more American women of childbearing age. According to the Pew Research Center, one in five American women who are old enough to be fertile choose not have any children. This means about 20% of American women will not have babies. This is a drastic increase of 10% from American women of the 1970s.
The Pew Study looked at Census data of American women under the age of 44 from all ethnic backgrounds and found that the percentages were the same across the board. The birth rate of African American women without a high school diploma has dropped by 17%.
D’vera Cohn, co-author of the study, noted that modern women have far more opportunities to live a fulfilling life than having babies. She also notes that the acceptance of women into the workforce and the economic necessity for two-income homes makes women more inclined to choose a career over raising a family.
It is expensive to rear a child. Reuters notes that in the economic recession of 2008, more American women chose to get abortions and more American men vasectomies because they could not afford to raise a child.
Other factors that could deter a woman from having a baby include not wanting their body to change; the human overpopulation problem and not believing that a child is necessary for a happy marriage or life. 
I always told my parents I don’t want kids a) because I have a younger brother who I am 11 years older than and he is a handful sometimes and I don’t want to be bothered with those respondsibilitys and that includes when I’m in my 20′s and or time after that. B) i want to live a life were I don’t have to put someone elses needs in front of mine this may sound selfish but right now I feel like when I get my degrees and start making money I want to spend it how I want to spend it; but on the other hand if my siblins have kids I would love to spoil them and give them anything they want I just dont want the full respondsibility as a parent.
70′s times was more affordable to have kids… alot of them too.
I’m a 34 teacher and I don’t have any. I want to travel and move around too much to accommodate children. I’m content with the ones I teach , less responsiblity!
I am so afraid to have a child nowadays, because i promised myself i do not want just a “BabyFather”, a lot of these black men are not ready for a structured family or a committed marriage like back in the day. And it is very scary to think about raising a child alone. all of my friends babydaddys r not doing no where near what they should be doing for there children.
I think the reduction and/or long term postponement of having kids is a product of two factors.
1. The gap in income in the country is continuing to widen as those of the me generation who have obtained an advantaged economic position through whatever means continue on with ‘me’ as all important in their business behaviors. The wealthy use their advantage not only to make more but to do so at the expense of their fellow countrymen.
2. The large majority are left with a small piece of the total income which isn’t enough to support even themselves sometimes, much less themselves plus children. The ‘responsible’ ones then put off having children until a better time economically, which might eventually come about or might not. The rest have kids, whether planned or not. Some will meet their obligations and prosper while others will succumb to the burden of trying to make 1+1=3 and end up with broken homes and broken families. Others, such as some of the men that the previous poster alluded to as well as a smaller subset of typically personality-disordered women will reproduce but not have any sense of obligation at all about raising thier own children, especially if it becomes burdensome to do so. I worked with a black man who would proposition women while driving down the street. ‘You got any kids?” “You want some?” suggesting that he would be happy to sire them but nothing more. It was amazing how many women found this to be an attractive attitude.
This country is solidly beginning to look as though it’s on an irreverseable course to third world status with no attempts by our government to stem the collapse. We’re already well over the carrying capacity for the nation yet our Senators are taking money under the table from global corporations who want the U.S. market saturated with cheap labor from Mexico estimated at 38 million by some sources. The social consequences of this strategy is national suicide but these globalists and crooked legislators make so much money that many can live anywhere they choose, for the most part. They’re breaking this country apart and the people and their dreams, with it.
Maslow’s heiarchy of needs states that one must have all the lower order needs satisfied before the more complex and satisfying needs can be achieved. Food, shelter, health, etc. are necessary in order to achieve and experience Love and Self-Actualization.
Love often flies out the window with money stress whih is so common nowadays. Likewise, self-actualization, an accellerated state of productivity and functioning achieved through the reduction of mental and physical stress in having the lower order needs satisfied, is not as often realized by an ever increasing number of people as so many lanquish on the edge of poverty their entire lives, never experiencing a fully lucid moment about what might could be.