The idea that not having children is a recent phenomenon brought about by contraceptive technology and women’s liberation is a common misconception in America. Many politicians and public figures see childlessness as selfish and even alarming.
However, women have been deciding not to have children for a long time. In the last third of the 19th century in the United States, it was common for one in five white women and one in three black women to have no children.
Women have always considered their economic, environmental, political, and community circumstances when making reproductive decisions. Efforts to limit access to abortion and contraception are often framed as a necessary reaction to women’s decisions to limit the number of children they bear.
However, women have always tried to limit births, even before modern birth control methods were available. Many women of the past experienced infertility or avoided heterosexual sex, but some actively avoided having children.
Studies today show that women do not have children because they do not have the support networks, money, or jobs that would make children possible, or because they prioritize other experiences.
Women in the past had similar reasons for avoiding motherhood, such as the lack of community support, infertility, and a desire to live differently than social norms dictated.
Women in the past experienced stigma for not having children, but that did not stop a significant proportion of women from choosing not to have them.
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