How common are childless women over 45 in your area?

[Austin]

I've been told by my older coworkers a while back who are from the northeastern U.S. that in the north there are tons of childless 45-60 year old corporate women who never had kids and according to my older coworkers "weren't all too happy about it" from what they could tell. They said they were pretty too and I responded that they must be joking and they said no for real lol and my response was that's horrible which they found very amusing and then agreed saying they were happy they moved to the South.

In Texas this is just unheard of, even among women who work in the corporate world, as I have several female relatives in my family who work and have worked full time and have more than 2 kids.

[SwordoftheVistula]

It's not all that uncommon here (culturally, the 'northeast' stretches down to include DC and the surrounding suburbs). I don't know all that many women over 45, but amongst women over 30, it's fairly common to be unmarried/no kids. If they're over 30 and not yet married or kids, you can pretty much assume they won't have any.

The 'not happy about it' bit is not really true though. They're quite happy that way, either single women who enjoy going out to bars & clubs in the evenings, or women who are married or have long term boyfriends, who have careers and pets.

True, there are some women who never married/had kids and who are bitter and hate men, but I think the latter is the cause of the former than vice versa.

[Sikeliot]

Relatively common

[Austin]

It's not all that uncommon here (culturally, the 'northeast' stretches down to include DC and the surrounding suburbs). I don't know all that many women over 45, but amongst women over 30, it's fairly common to be unmarried/no kids. If they're over 30 and not yet married or kids, you can pretty much assume they won't have any.

The 'not happy about it' bit is not really true though. They're quite happy that way, either single women who enjoy going out to bars & clubs in the evenings, or women who are married or have long term boyfriends, who have careers and pets.

True, there are some women who never married/had kids and who are bitter and hate men, but I think the latter is the cause of the former than vice versa.

Eh according to these guys from Chicago (40-50 yr old something high-powered attorneys) the childless women weren't all that content in their lives, seeing as these guys would know as they weren't exactly all smiles from working so much either (though they had kids years ago).

I'm not talking about single women I'm talking about older childless women. There's a huge difference between being 40-60 and single with kids compared to 40-60 and no kids as a woman.


I'm thinking maybe this has to do with the northern dominance of feminism values among women compared to the south where such ideology never really dominated. It is odd though because southern women work in the corporate world yet they have several children mostly by ages 24-28 whereas according to these guys it's only at 30 that northern women even begin thinking of kids. This is astounding seeing as by 30 a woman isn't near as fertile as in her twenties. This was backed up by one of their paralegals coming down from the north. She was 30 and had just had her first kid and apparently that was young in her mind.

In my mind all this points to feminism=less children. For I just don't see it being anything else. What else is it? I can't think of any other differing factor in women in the north from women in the south other than women in the north are more feminist hence have less interest in children. It isn't education because obviously all the women I am speaking of have degrees in both regions.

[Curtis24]

I've been told by my older coworkers a while back who are from the northeastern U.S. that in the north there are tons of childless 45-60 year old corporate women who never had kids and according to my older coworkers "weren't all too happy about it" from what they could tell. They said they were pretty too and I responded that they must be joking and they said no for real lol and my response was that's horrible which they found very amusing and then agreed saying they were happy they moved to the South.

In Texas this is just unheard of, even among women who work in the corporate world, as I have several female relatives in my family who work and have worked full time and have more than 2 kids.

I don't know, but at the rate things are going, it seems the majority of "Generation Y"(born after 1980) will be childless, men and women both.

I graduated from high school in 2002. I live in the Northeast, but my high school had a hefty "bluecollar" element. I am facebook friends with virtually every person in my graduating class. Right now, we are all in the 26-27 year age range. Going by facebook, I"d say less than 5% of my classmates have children. As we all know, it only gets harder the older you get, becoming very hard indeed once a woman passes the age of 30. At the age of 35, a woman's womb is classified as "geriatric"(exact word used) by doctors...

I often wonder if, because of some kind of flaw in upbringing, people of my generation simply do not want children anymore. Or perhaps, as some have argued, its because we all know how hard it is to raise kids in an individualist culture, so we say to hell with it. Others would argue that sexual promiscuity damages the desire to create families.

EDIT: And yeah, I have to agree with Sword that it seems those who don't have children seem content.

[Austin]

I don't know, but at the rate things are going, it seems the majority of "Generation Y"(born after 1980) will be childless, men and women both.

I graduated from high school in 2002. I live in the Northeast, but my high school had a hefty "bluecollar" element. I am facebook friends with virtually every person in my graduating class. Right now, we are all in the 27-28 year age range. Going by facebook, I"d say less than 5% of my classmates have children. As we all know, it only gets harder the older you get, becoming very hard indeed once a woman passes the age of 30. At the age of 35, a woman's womb is classified as "geriatric"(exact word used) by doctors...

I often wonder if, because of some kind of flaw in upbringing, people of my generation simply do not want children anymore. Or perhaps, as some have argued, its because we all know how hard it is to raise kids in an individualist culture, so we say to hell with it. Others would argue that sexual promiscuity damages the desire to create families. Regardless, it seems that the majority of people I went to school with are not going to have children...

Different worlds lol.....


On my facebook most my HS grad class is 23 or around it and not a month goes by where there aren't baby pictures being posted and mass-grats! comments to it.

If an eligible woman in Texas was childless at 30 people would be asking whats wrong with the marriage or her physically but in all honesty I don't think I know of anyone in their 30's who doesn't have kids, even if they are single, which few are by 30 here.

[Curtis24]

In my mind all this points to feminism=less children. For I just don't see it being anything else. What else is it? I can't think of any other differing factor in women in the north from women in the south other than women in the north are more feminist hence have less interest in children. It isn't education because obviously all the women I am speaking of have degrees in both regions.

Its probably class-based in some regard. North tends to be more "white-collar", women more likely to get masters degrees, etc.

Interestingly enough, my mom's family is more working-class, uneducated, etc. Five of my cousins from my generation have kids, three of them having 2 or more kids. My one cousin started when he was not yet 20, and moved to South Carolina where he owns his own house(in an admittedly shitty, minority-infested neighborhood though). The dichotomy between him and Northeasterners is pretty striking, I"ll admit, and I put myself in the Northeastern category.

[Austin]

Its probably class-based in some regard. North tends to be more "white-collar", women more likely to get masters degrees, etc. Its also much cheaper to live in the south...

Interestingly enough, my mom's family is more working-class, uneducated, etc. Five of my cousins from my generation have kids, three of them having 2 or more kids. My one cousin started when he was not yet 20, and moved to South Carolina

Yeah but I'm talking of degreed women. I don't know any degreed women in Texas who make 40k+ a year who are 30 and don't have children. It's unheard of practically save maybe for someone who had physical issues or something.

[Curtis24]

I don't know the answer

[SwordoftheVistula]

Eh according to these guys from Chicago (40-50 yr old something high-powered attorneys) the childless women weren't all that content in their lives

There's a lot of angry/feminist women in that age group. I used to hear horror stories from my friends who were about 10 years older than me, of dealing with women/feminists in the workplace. Feminism has actually receded a lot in the past decade or so, peaking in the 90s.

I'm thinking maybe this has to do with the northern dominance of feminism values among women compared to the south where such ideology never really dominated. It is odd though because southern women work in the corporate world yet they have several children mostly by ages 24-28 whereas according to these guys it's only at 30 that northern women even begin thinking of kids. This is astounding seeing as by 30 a woman isn't near as fertile as in her twenties. This was backed up by one of their paralegals coming down from the north. She was 30 and had just had her first kid and apparently that was young in her mind.

In my mind all this points to feminism=less children. For I just don't see it being anything else. What else is it? I can't think of any other differing factor in women in the north from women in the south other than women in the north are more feminist hence have less interest in children. It isn't education because obviously all the women I am speaking of have degrees in both regions.

I don't know, but at the rate things are going, it seems the majority of "Generation Y"(born after 1980) will be childless, men and women both.

I graduated from high school in 2002. I live in the Northeast, but my high school had a hefty "bluecollar" element. I am facebook friends with virtually every person in my graduating class. Right now, we are all in the 26-27 year age range. Going by facebook, I"d say less than 5% of my classmates have children. As we all know, it only gets harder the older you get, becoming very hard indeed once a woman passes the age of 30. At the age of 35, a woman's womb is classified as "geriatric"(exact word used) by doctors...

I often wonder if, because of some kind of flaw in upbringing, people of my generation simply do not want children anymore. Or perhaps, as some have argued, its because we all know how hard it is to raise kids in an individualist culture, so we say to hell with it. Others would argue that sexual promiscuity damages the desire to create families.

Probably a combination of feminism & sexual promiscuity has a lot to do with it, but also the higher cost of living, especially housing costs. Most of my friends who are my age or younger in the east coast cities I have lived in (NYC, Boston, DC) still live with parents. Many of my friends in the Great Lakes state where I grew up also live with parents, though the overall percentage is not as high. The ones who do not live with parents usually live with roommates. Only a few MIT grads (presumably very high salary) amongst my friends who are not much more than a few years older than me own their own homes.

Also people who want to have families often migrate to the south where the income/cost of living ration is better for someone who has a family and wants decent schools, whereas single people often migrate to the northeast either for higher overall level of jobs or because they are 'party cities'.