I'm expecting the arrival of my second nephew next week. It'll be my brother Steve's first kid. My other brother has a son who was born the exact same day as my second (and probably last) child.
We were all together last night to celebrate my oldest child's birthday, and a great debate erupted. Based on zero facts and figures, I thought the number of women who choose not to have children could be as high as 30%. Everyone thought that number was ridiculously high (although I'm told Ryan started to side with me).
Here are some assumptions I made as I argued my case:
- There's a correlation between education and motherhood - the more education you have, the less likely you are to procreate - Canadian women are becoming more educated - more woman are earning university degrees than ever before
- The less religious you are, the less likely you are to start a family - Canadians are becoming less religious as each year passes
- City folk are less likely to procreate than suburban or country folk
- The higher in the corporate hierarchy you climb, the less likely you are to mother a child - women are assuming upper management positions in companies more than ever before
All of that seemed logical to me, and 30% seemed plausible. This morning I did a little Googling and I found this New York Times article entitled More American women choose not to have children.
American women are waiting longer to have children, and more than ever are choosing not to have children at all, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Twenty percent of American women from the ages of 40 to 44 have no children, double the level of 30 years ago, the report says, and women in that age bracket who do have children have fewer than ever - an average of 1.9, compared with the median of 3.1 in 1976.
The article went on to say that Hispanic women in the US were bucking the trend. Considering Canada doesn't have the same Hispanic women populous, and per-capita Canadians are more educated, my 30% might not be that ridiculous.
How many Canadian women choose not to have children? If you're a woman who chose not to have kids, I'd love to hear why you made that decision.
