U of L researcher explores why some women choose to be childless

What woman does not like to treat herself to a day at the spa. For many it’s hard to find the time to do that, But a new study suggests that 7 percent of Canadian women are choosing to create the time by being childless

Gillian Ayers i a University of Lethbridge researcher who has been researching the concept of “childless by choice .” Ayers chose not to have children of her own and wanted to explore the reasons why other women made the same choice. “Out of the 21 women I spoke with most spoke about financial reasons so that goes back to intensive motherhood and that motherhood should be expensive and time consuming,”adds Ayers. “There is the idea if you are not going to do it well maybe you should not do it at all.”

About 7 percent of Canadian women ages 20 to 34 now identify them as childless by choice. That works out to about 250,000 women in Canada and that number translates into about 900 in Lethbridge. Some say their decision is selfish others say it’s selfless. Gillian says the reasons varied and most women interviewed say it was a difficult decision. “There is the idea out there that women have childless by choice, and that is not the case,” says Ayers. “The women took a lot of time and really thought through the decision.”

Other reasons provided to Ayers was career and education goals, not having a maternal instinct and the impossibility of being the perfect mother as well as health and environmental concerns.