'It’s the Choices You Make That Get You There': Decision-Making Pathways of Childfree Women

Abstract

Using qualitative in-depth interviews with U.S. women, we examined how and why women make the decision to remain childfree. First, we show how women’s decision-making pathways were the result of complex factors. Second, we illustrate why the women chose to be childfree, highlighting the benefits of being childfree, the costs of motherhood, and the constraints women felt they faced. Although an exploratory study, our interviews suggest diversity in how women make the decision to be childfree, partly shaped by age, relationship status, and race. Yet our analysis of why women chose to remain childfree did not reveal patterns by their individual characteristics. The women were consistent in the belief that motherhood would disrupt their lifestyle and they would risk not living up to societal expectations of a “good” mother. We argue this shows the power of the social construction of motherhood.