A recent report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) states that when women in their early 20s were interviewed between 1982-84, only five per cent said they didn’t want children, yet four times as many were childless by their late 30s. Furthermore, it’s projected that almost one quarter of women born in 1973 will be childless by the age of 45. Sue Peart, Editor of glossy magazine You says: “I’ve lost count of the number of newspaper and magazine column miles I’ve read on the vexed question of those-how shall we describe them?- women who, for one reason or another, arrive at their late 30’s and early 40’s childless. The clichés used to describe them don’t make attractive reading. ‘Smug singletons’ and ‘selfish career women’ are two oft-trotted-out examples. Commentators seem to assume that women have made a deliberate choice to put career (or, to be more realistic, job) over family, and maybe some of them have. But equally many of them yearn for a baby, it’s just that the right man hasn’t come along in time.”
Is the growing phenomenon of the childless 30 or 40-something woman the result of cynical lifestyle choices? And should we be looking more closely at the role played by men who delay commitment in a relationship until their 40’s?
The-Latest would like to know your views.
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