In 1950 women were having an average of 7.4 children in their lifetime. 70 years later, women are having an average of 2.5 children in their lifetime. An influx of contraception knowledge, working women and female breadwinners, the obvious environmental aspect as well as the constant growing expenses of having a family, gives women a choice as to whether children are something they want, whereas previously it was something they supposedly needed. But although the statistics show women are having fewer children, we still have such a heavy stigma around women who have one or no children. Humans have a biological desire to reproduce, in fact, sexual desire is one of the three primitive desires, but sex itself has developed to be so much more than just baby-making. Women are expected to suffer from “baby fever” and an uncontrollable maternal instinct, and not having this innate desire for offspring is looked down upon in society. Many people see childless women as not only strange, but also morally wrong. Women who dislike children, or simply don’t want them themselves, are seen as “less than” women. Men who are not fathers are not questioned, and their male identity is intact, so at what point are we going to let go of the notion that children are the missing heart in the tin women so many still want us to be?
Written by Isa Edwards Buesa
Artwork by Zara Masood
Comments