7 Reasons Why Intelligent Women Are Not Having Children

[Judge_Knoll]

Found this article very interesting. I have noticed that a lot of intelligent professional women do not have children or even prefer to stay single. Poor folks seem to be the ones with the most kids which is probably not ideal for society.

1. Because some women physically can’t.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 6 percent of married women ages 15 to 44 are infertile – that is, they are unable to get pregnant after having one year of unprotected sex.

Infertility can be caused by age, rapid weight loss or gain, excessive alcohol use, smoking or excessive stress that causes missed periods.


2. Because two is just enough.

The idea that marriage is just for reproducing is becoming more and more obsolete.

Although the vast majority of married women do end up having children, some women don’t really want a full house, and that’s OK.

In 2013, Sara Tenenbein, a 31-year-old blogger and consultant, told The Los Angeles Times she’s satisfied living with just her husband and doesn’t “need to add more humans to the equation.”

And she’s not alone: Between the years 2006 and 2010, 6 percent of married women ages 40 to 44 had no children (biological, adopted or stepchildren) in their house.

It’s a small percentage, but it’s statistically significant since in 1988, only 4.5 percent of married women were childless.

Childless by Choice Project Director Laura S. Scott also told The Los Angeles Times that recently, there’s been a “resistance” to becoming a parent right after marriage.

People are taking control of their own lives and refusing to follow previously accepted trajectories “in ways that they didn’t perhaps 30 or 40 or 50 years ago,” Scott said.


3. Because there are not enough social services to assist working mothers.

Paid maternity leave, flexible work schedule and subsidized day care are all necessary requirements for a woman who’d at least try to have it all.

The United States has a notoriously flawed maternity leave system – mainly because paid maternity leave simply doesn’t exist.

President Obama has called the US the only developed country in the world that doesn’t have some kind of partially paid, legally protected time off program for new mothers.

Swedish mother Christine Demsteader told Bloomberg she has it “so good” in Stockholm.

“The thing is,” she said, “we have only one system for doing things: Women take a year off, then they go back to work, and the kid goes into day care. You don’t have another option.”

Maybe if the US helps women who want to have kids, women will have kids.


4. Because of intelligence… maybe.

Research from the London School of Economics suggests there’s a link between intelligence and desire to have children.

According to Evolutionary Psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa, a woman’s urge to be a mother drops 25 percent for every 15 extra IQ points.

But Sadhbh Walshe of The Guardian wasn’t convinced, and she analyzed these results even further.

Walshe proclaims Kanazawa’s findings merely reinforce the terrible idea that women who choose not to have children are selfish. She says:


[Kanazawa’s] ultimate conclusion, however, is that intelligent women’s failure to reproduce is bad for them because they are flying in the face of their biological destiny, and it’s also bad for society because fewer intelligent moms means fewer intelligent kids, and that may have drastic implications for the nationwide IQ.

So put another way, smart women are doing society a disservice with their dumb reproductive choices.

This plays nicely into the narrative that women who choose not to have children are selfish or sad or both.

Kanazawa’s findings might seem interesting, but they should be taken with a grain of salt. He has an history of being under fire for a variety of controversial pseudoscience – his most heinous being his “objective” suggestion that black women are not attractive.

It’s worth noting women who have achieved high levels of education are generally the least likely to have children, but in recent years, their percentage of childlessness is actually decreasing.

Women with professional degrees are more likely to have children now than they were 14 years ago. In other words, they’re actually going against the trend.


5. Because of negative interactions with children.

A study from Kansas State University suggests people who have been exposed to loud tantrums, smelly diapers or other gross, unappealing aspects of babies don’t want to have children.

Yeah, this makes sense.


6. Because of increased use of emergency contraceptives and birth control.

The CDC reports 11 percent of sexually active women between the years 2006 and 2010 used the morning after pill at some point in their lives, compared to only 4.2 percent in 2002 and 1 percent in 1995.

Additionally, the percentage of women who have used contraceptive methods has increased from 98.2 percent in 2002 to 99.1 percent between 2006 and 2010.

Of those contraceptive methods, 87.5 percent of women used highly effective methods such as the pill, an IUD or a contraceptive patch, up from 85.5 percent in 2002.

Emergency contraceptives and birth control methods give women agency over their own bodies, allowing them to decide when they feel ready to have a child – if ever.


7. Because they just don’t want to.

Ultimately, having a child is an individual choice. And some women just don’t want to do it.

Women are experiencing a kind of freedom they’ve never had before.

Gone are the days when women could only be housewives, when they felt pressure to stay in the home and be their families’ caregivers.

Now, women are in every corner of every industry, with their representation growing each day.

It’s this plethora of new choices that make women feel like they can truly do anything.

Source

 

[Occasionally]

I go with #7 as the key reason.

Women are as part of the workforce as men. And like all working people, a career takes up most of the day and people come home tired. But women want to work, have careers and not be pigeon holed being Mrs. Cleaver staying home making dinner, doing laundry and being a housewife like 50 years ago.

Having a career takes time as well as responsibility. Some women don't care about going on mat leave having kids, but some do care and prefer to work. And trying to juggle work and kids schedules is tough.

That's why first world countries have low birth rates. A combo of people working hard, having interesting jobs available, high standards of living, but also combined with high costs leads to adults nowadays wanting to work. You can't buy all the latest cars and gadgets if people are sitting home all day doing nothing. Got to earn that paycheque to buy the latest iPhone and endless online stuff from Amazon.

 

[anon1]

I go with #7 as the key reason.

Women are as part of the workforce as men. And like all working people, a career takes up most of the day and people come home tired. But women want to work, have careers and not be pigeon holed being Mrs. Cleaver staying home making dinner, doing laundry and being a housewife like 50 years ago.

Having a career takes time as well as responsibility. Some women don't care about going on mat leave having kids, but some do care and prefer to work. And trying to juggle work and kids schedules is tough.

That's why first world countries have low birth rates. A combo of people working hard, having interesting jobs available, high standards of living, but also combined with high costs leads to adults nowadays wanting to work. You can't buy all the latest cars and gadgets if people are sitting home all day doing nothing. Got to earn that paycheque to buy the latest iPhone and endless online stuff from Amazon.

But women HAVE to have children, who else can do the job?

 

[Judge_Knoll]

But women HAVE to have children, who else can do the job?

No they do not.

 

[Flatulent Fox]

Found this article very interesting. I have noticed that a lot of intelligent professional women do not have children or even prefer to stay single. Poor folks seem to be the ones with the most kids which is probably not ideal for society.

Isn't this the basis for the movie Idiocracy?

 

[Titalian]

Found this article very interesting. I have noticed that a lot of intelligent professional women do not have children or even prefer to stay single. Poor folks seem to be the ones with the most kids which is probably not ideal for society.





Source

No. 7 Sounds pretty much on par !

 

[nobody123]

A lot of it sounds reasonable enough, but number 4 is such a heaping crock of shit that it stinks up the rest of the article.

 

[Ironhead]

7 Reasons Why Intelligent Women Are Not Having Children

Cool ! :thumb:
The planet can barely handle the population as is.

 

[MissCroft]

I made the decision to not have children. I am now 38 and it seems many people want to remind me that I'm "running out of time". I have had 6 men in the last few years offer to give me a child.


I used to think the opposite was true. That I would reach my late thirties and would end up desperately trying to find a man to impregnate me - not the case. LOL

 

[SQUAD51]

A lot of it sounds reasonable enough, but number 4 is such a heaping crock of shit that it stinks up the rest of the article.

I agree.
You know the muslim fundamentalists will use one as an argument to support why women should be kept out of schools.

 

[bazokajoe]

Off topic a lil bit.......I am a 50 something male and have never had any desire to have kids for various reasons. Some are mentioned in the OP's post, others aren't.

 

[SkyRider]

I made the decision to not have children. I am now 38

Who will care for you in your old age? Who will inherit your Earthy possessions? Who will bury you?

There are still women who want kids. Sandra Bullock and Charlize Theron adopted kids (black of course). Mind you they probably have enough financial resources to raise kids. Also, I see that the lesbian couple across the street now have a new baby (their first).

 

[rhuarc29]

I agree.
You know the muslim fundamentalists will use one as an argument to support why women should be kept out of schools.

I disagree...though I think it applies to both men and women. Intelligent people are more likely to be successful in other areas of life and so have different priorities.

 

[red]

I made the decision to not have children. I am now 38 and it seems many people want to remind me that I'm "running out of time". I have had 6 men in the last few years offer to give me a child.


I used to think the opposite was true. That I would reach my late thirties and would end up desperately trying to find a man to impregnate me - not the case. LOL

Everyone should decide for themselves.

I am surprised that only six men want to make you pregnant.

 

[james t kirk]

I made the decision to not have children. I am now 38 and it seems many people want to remind me that I'm "running out of time". I have had 6 men in the last few years offer to give me a child.


I used to think the opposite was true. That I would reach my late thirties and would end up desperately trying to find a man to impregnate me - not the case. LOL

Ask them if they would be willing to be a father to that child and support that child.

 

[nobody123]

I disagree...though I think it applies to both men and women. Intelligent people are more likely to be successful in other areas of life and so have different priorities.

Don't confuse being self-interested (or if I was feeling less generous, venal and self-serving) with being intelligent. Debunked pseudo-science from a discredited fraud notwithstanding, (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-data-are-in-regarding-satoshi-kanazawa/), there is absolutely NO link between intelligence and the desire to have children.

 

[james t kirk]

I go with #7 as the key reason.

Women are as part of the workforce as men. And like all working people, a career takes up most of the day and people come home tired. But women want to work, have careers and not be pigeon holed being Mrs. Cleaver staying home making dinner, doing laundry and being a housewife like 50 years ago.

Having a career takes time as well as responsibility. Some women don't care about going on mat leave having kids, but some do care and prefer to work. And trying to juggle work and kids schedules is tough.

That's why first world countries have low birth rates. A combo of people working hard, having interesting jobs available, high standards of living, but also combined with high costs leads to adults nowadays wanting to work. You can't buy all the latest cars and gadgets if people are sitting home all day doing nothing. Got to earn that paycheque to buy the latest iPhone and endless online stuff from Amazon.

Agreed.

50 years ago, only a very small percentage of women went to university and wanted to have careers.

Now, it's the majority.

Things have changed. (For the better or worse would be subject for debate.)

 

[MissCroft]

Ask them if they would be willing to be a father to that child and support that child.

Yes, that's what they told me.

 

[canada-man]

Agreed.

50 years ago, only a very small percentage of women went to university and wanted to have careers.

Now, it's the majority.

Things have changed. (For the better or worse would be subject for debate.)

50 years ago it was easier to find a job without going to college/university.

 

[Peegies]

Who will care for you in your old age? Who will inherit your Earthy possessions? Who will bury you?

The first and third you can buy. The 2nd question is irrelevant - you're dead; who cares what you controlled while you were alive?

Almost sounds like people want to have children in order to ensure that property is kept within a particular subset of humans.