Why is it that around the world middle class white women and European women are not having children....?

Question

in the numbers that hispanics and other deprived minorities are having children.

Answer 1

Educated people have less children, fact.

Answer 2

It's not a White thing or even a Western thing, it's a class thing....

Japan is the exact same way, as are women of Asian descent raised in Anglo countries. South Korea & Singapore seem headed in the same direction. Even in some of the Muslim countries, the upper-classes are starting to show this tendency......

Kristi G posted:
"american men and women in their 30s right now are among the first wide-spread generation to be facing major responsibilities (both financially and with their time) in caring for their aging parents"

What, have you never talked to a traditional person in your life? I mean like your grandparents or even just an immigrant? You have it exactly backwards. The Baby Boomers in the West were the first generation in the history of the world who didn't have to take care of their aged parents. I emphasize "in the West" because for people in Eastern Europe and the Third World, the 60s and 70s changed nothing in this regard.

If we in the West are going back to that, it just means we're returning to the human norm....

Answer 3

Interesting thing about that... Not sure the exact nature of the role this plays, but american men and women in their 30s right now are among the first wide-spread generation to be facing major responsibilities (both financially and with their time) in caring for their aging parents; as well as trying to have their own lives and begining their own families and careers. They are faced with obligations that make the idea of having children outlandish, and instead of doing it anyway they are deciding to postpone, or not have kids at all. And yes, the higher education level one has, the fewer children one will likely conceive. Since the number of educated women is increasing among Americans and Europeans, it goes to follow that their pregnancy rate is decreasing.

Answer 4

Many reasons

1) Women's emancipation - It led women to evolve but their evolution was set up to "imitate" men's lifestyle and this leads to point 2
2) Career and work - Many women are so attracted by career and work that they opted not to have kids or even to be single at all. This mainly happens in very emancipated countries (As you rightly said, US, Europe but also Australia, NZ, etc)
3) Economic reasons - Many cases the sole salary of the hubby is not sufficient to grant you a decent living style in the US and Europe and that leads many women to go to work, willingly or unwillingly.
4) Loss of family values - Emancipation and Wealth didn't come without drawbacks. Women have become more aggressive and independent and many men have lost their self confidence (hence an increase of homosexuality). A generalized loss of values and the awareness that you can find as many men as you want out there, leads women to marry multiple times or not to marry at all. In both cases, the insecurity makes them think that it's better not to have kid.
5) Esthetics - Many women don't want to have kids because they will ruin their body. Sad but true, it's a form of insane egoism dictated by personal insecurities (i can't stand being ugly because beauty is all what i have), and environmental factors (people out there won't like me if i get ugly), as well as fear to ruin the marriage (will my hubby like me EVEN with all those pounds and with my saggy boobs?).

In short the lower amount of kids is due to egoism, superficiality and edonistic reasons which doesn't mean women are wrong but simply that they adapt to the present times, where appearing is much more important than actually BEING.

I hope this helps.

Answer 5

Not a matter of class and European geographical biase.
Money.
- Cost of living has increased. $1 today is worth less than 40 cents tommorrow; cost of having baby; cost of retirement;
- More old folks to look after with fewer hands, compounded with increased cost of living through inflation.

Education and progression of science.
- Education. Social contraceptives in the forms of ye olde pill and rubber.
- Better medical facilities, less infant mortality. A life in the past was valued more; a child did not mean automatic right of life and offspring.
- Increasing life spans through medicine, why have child now when child can come later. (Depite links of higher probability of Autism in children with older parents of 40 years and above.)

Change in social attitudes.
- Process towards reproduction has become semi-recreational. Less social, emotional and financial importance is placed on the act of sex in money rich countries.
- Decline in human relationships as evident in higher divorce rates and pre-marital co-haitation, which would not necessarily lead to a stable relationship.
- Social disincentive to get married resulting from the above and associated financial freedom accorded thereof.
- Less social importance attached to carrying on the familly name and tradition; some older generations believed in a need to leave behind a legacy, their children, through which immortality is attained.

Technological advances and relatively safer environments.
- Pursuits of increased interests and distractions, like computers, high fashion, old social events recycled, such as Starbucks, etc. to look hip.
- Virtual worlds like the shopping mall, as opposed to going to some third world to purchase silk and spices; risk aversion when all comfort is seen as obtainable from home.
- Notion of self relisation; "there is no god, I and only I make things the way things should be." In otherwords, the adage of no man is an island does not seem to apply where we are the exclusive drivers of success.

Partial misnomers:
- Baby's and Women's suffrage. Insofar as if a woman does not want to have kids in a third world country, the baby is burried alive or abandoned.
- Financial freedom. Being richer or poorer has little bearing on the pursuit of knowledge and education, evident in newly rich couples whose immediate material gratification, like fast cars or fashion, takes precedence to getting a good college degree or equivalent.

Answer 6

There are many reasons.1. Most have career oriented jobs.2.They do not have a strong religious influence.(the use of birth control)3.They have a wider conception of the life.4.They are more conscious of over population.5.They are putting off having children till later in life.

Answer 7

We don't want to....simple as that!! Some woman have children only because they think they can't do anything else. I'm, not trying to be derogatory...it's just a fact!!! Not everyone is cut out to have kids.....and many people I know that have children....have no business having them!!!

Answer 8

Middle class white women marry late,postpone child birth , spend more time in hobbies and avocations,pursue careers in preference to family life,do not nurse children till weaning,consume quality proteins in large quantities which makes them less fertile and practise sexual behavior not commensurate with high fertility.

Answer 9

Because they have money and don't need kids to work the farm. They have access to contraception and don't have as many unwanted pregnancies.

Answer 10

Because you are on Yahoo answers rather than having sex