Childfree By Choice Or Otherwise: The Women Whose Stories We Don’t Hear

Childfree women are the fastest growing demographic group in the world. The Australian Bureau of Statistics predicts couples without children will overtake households with children by 2031. The proportion of couples without children in 1976 was less than a third. By 2011 it had increased to almost 38 percent.

Despite these startling figures, being unable to have children and being childfree by choice remain somewhat taboo topics. It’s unusual to see women in the media or depicted in entertainment, who are over the age of forty and don’t have children. When these women’s stories are shared it’s often with pity or disdain. It’s far too rare that we hear about women’s experiences of being child-free in their own words, minus the stereotypical tropes. Future Women spoke to three women about their childfree lives.