Demographers point to a number of factors driving this phenomenon: economic insecurity, political uncertainty, shifting gender norms and a lessening stigma around the choice to remain child-free.
In the past, women who could have been inclined to remain child-free might have given birth anyway because that is what society expected from them.
Even so, women who choose to remain child-free say they still feel like they constantly have to explain their choices to others.
Women who opt to remain child-free say they still experience judgment for their choices.
The assumption that child-free women don’t care about children simply isn’t true either, some say.
Persons:
CNN — Dyanna Volek, “ I’m, ”, Volek, “, doesn’t, don’t, Cecilia Sanders, Sanders, ’ ”, Amy Blackstone, ” Blackstone, “ We’ve, we’ve, Yana Grant, Yana Grant “, ” Grant, Grant, They’re, Graves, Jordan Levey, Levey, they’d, wasn't, Jordan Levey “, —, ” Sanders, Blackstone, They’ve, they’ll, couldn’t, ’
Organizations:
CNN, Centers for Disease Control, University of Maine, US, Getty
Locations:
San Francisco, Chicago, Tulsa , Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Washington