Is there a connection between the feminist movement and women's desire to adopt?

Question

Some people blame the legalization of abortion for the 'lack' of babies to adopt.

But isn't the feminist movement also responsible for Western society's high infertility rates? By most accounts, a woman's fertility starts falling at 30, and to more than 50% by the 40s.

Has our culture taught girls to 'achieve' in other arenas, and minimized the possibility of having a family?

Do most women want to adopt because they spent their fertile years pursuing other goals?

Should we be educating girls about diminishing fertility in schools?

Answer 1

I believe that the biggest contribution that feminism has made to the "lack" of babies available for adoption is that women can now financially take care of themselves and their children. They no longer need rely on a man to support them financially.

This doesn't mean women don't need or want or desire men in their lives. Nor does it mean that children don't need fathers. We do, and they do.

It simply means that women are no longer in the position of having NO OTHER OPTION when they discover they are pregnant and the man in their life waffles, or runs, or (oops) turns out, is married**.

There may be a greater DEMAND for babies to adopt because, in some cases, women are delaying childbirth until later in life, only to discover they have fertility issues.

However, adoption stats from the 60's through the 90's show an ever declining number of women choosing to relinquish their children.

PS: Absolutely, Tish! "women are not placing their babies because they don't want to"!

PSS Regarding parenthood & travel...we went to London, Italy & Greece last year with my daughter, son on law & granddaughter. I had my daughter at 17, finished high school, graduated college. Took my first trip to Ixtapa at 29, have been on 4 cruises, including Puerto Vallarta & 6 ports in the Caribbean. When my friends were partying in their late teens & 20's, I was a responsible mommy. Now they have young ones at home, & my husband & I get to travel.

So, yes, you can be a mommy & have the career, raise your babies & explore the world later. Or, like my daughter, you can travel to Europe with your 2 or 3 or 4 year old (she can tell you ALL ABOUT traveling with kids & on a budget!).
You can have it all...but trying to "have it all" all at once is crazy making! = p

I'm not sure it's society's expectation as much as it is our own to be wife, mom, worker, cook, bottle washer & laundress. WE place a lot of pressure on ourselves to be perfect. Besides if we don't do it...who will? LOL

In the early days of feminism, women said, "We can do it all! Work & take care of the house" because we wanted CHOICES. It was a bargaining chip & we sorta hung ourselves.

Today, many young women don't identify themselves as feminists & probably don't even realize how much in their lives have been influenced by early feminism. I believe we need to renew the feminist movement - updated for today's issues! But that's a different topic...is there a forum? LOL

PSSS To katiesaik~OMG it's just sad how little we women know about the feminist movement. It began with the suffraggetes in the late 1800's working to obtain VOTING rights for women, & included things like sex education & birth control for women, which were actually ILLEGAL in the early 1900's. It's about so much more than just equal pay! And it began LONG before the50's!

Answer 2

They also complain that women who get divorced and live as a single parent live in greater poverty. Apparently we should be responsible for their choices once again. They'll never admit that their movement has negatively affected women with their constant blaming of everything on men. They'll just blame things on men more. They're going to continue doing this until men finally say that we are not going to be fixing their problem regardless of how responsible they are for them. The result of all this is that not only are future generations becoming more and more delinquent and nihilistic as a result of not having a positive male role model around .. which ironically results in people not caring about notions of self-sacrifice such as chivalry which feminism depends on, but young men have no positive role to aspire to anyway, so what else is there for them to do but cause a lot of trouble? We're seeing this in the rise of gang culture and violent crime (much of it against women) across the western world. Additionally, we're seeing it in the hard time women, particularly feminists, get on the Internet.. LOL!!

Answer 3

No, the feminist movement is not responsible for high infertility rates. That is a myth. Contrary to modern belief, the purpose of the feminist movement wasn't to get more women in the work force. There were already millions of women in the workforce by the time the feminist movement started. Women had bared the brunt of the domestic economy during WWII and didn't leave when the men came back. Instead of returning to the home like everyone told them to, they simply opted to stay in the workforce and accept more "traditional" jobs. The ladies at the steel mills became secretaries. Even as the 50's rolled in and the propaganda machine churned out more images of the "good housewife" and obvious disparities in the workplace continued, the numbers of working women kept increasing. The feminist movement came in to play, not to increase the number, but to give working women equal pay, and equal opportunity for advancement. The feminist movement existed to make sure women were treated fairly and equally in society. To this day the pay and equality gap is proven to still exist. The feminist movement didn't have as big of an impact as a lot of people think. However, the small strides it did make are something we should ALL be thankful, especially other women.

Answer 4

A real feminist has children precisely when (and if) she wants to; that's kind of the point. There is no lock-step Official Feminist Method of controlling our own reproductive lives. If anyone buys anybody's bill of goods about how to live and is later rendered unhappy by that, well, they deserve it.

Why do we not bewail the culture that "teaches" males to postpone family? Why don't we complain about the culture that expects women, many of whom work because they have to, to continue doing most of the work of child rearing? Why don't we want to change a society that "teaches" women they can't have both a family and a career--not because many men don't want to help around the house, or because the US doesn't provide decent benefits and child care for all workers, but because wanting career and family too makes a woman a greedy, selfish creature who wants to "have it all"? (All we call a man who expects to "have it all" this way is--a man.)

I in no way blame feminism for the fact that society has not yet accepted feminism, and instead expects a woman to be a full-time mommy, housewife, and worker.

I have no problem with a comprehensive sex ed course that includes fertility info, however. Great idea.

Answer 5

I think feminism has given women more choices. One choice they didn't used to have was to be a single parent. Another was to use birth control. Another was to have the right to get an abortion. Another was the right to have a real career, which is harder to do if you are pregnant or taking care of a baby.

But I don't think feminism is to blame, if you see what I'm saying. All those other things are helpful improvements to women's lives.

I think more women are able to be open about not wanting to be a mom, too. I have several family members who choose not to be parents. That wasn't possible before feminism, either.

Answer 6

Are you sure that the rate of adoption has actually changed? I don't think that it has. I think the number of infants has decreased. Lack of white babies has merely shifted adopters to other countries where birth control is not easily available and poverty pretty common.

Most women still have their babies in their 20s. While there was a big boom in recent years of women in their 30s, most of the boom in the 40s is due to 2nd families and new infertility treatments that may not have been available 15 years ago. Either way, most of the new moms are still in their 20s.

I think most women know about diminishing fertility. They simply dismiss it until they find themselves wanting. Keep in mind that the number of women having infertility problems isn't all that high. I think the highest percentage I've heard of is 15%. Now, understand also that at 45, 50% of women who want to become pregnant can't. The number of women who want to get pregnant at that age is actually pretty small and likely includes a large number of women who easily could become pregnant if they stopped their birth control.

Answer 7

Well, abortion is only one factor that has contributed to the relatively lower numbers of healthy white babies to adopt. There are also contraceptives and single mothers choosing to keep their babies. Of course, if abortion and contraception became largely unavailable again and single mothers were once again made to give up their babies, the orphanages and foster homes would once again fill up with these babies, just like they did in the past. Also, it would become much less expensive to adopt them. I once had a college instructor tell her class that she adopted two girls in the 1960s. The total cost for adopting both of them was $300.

Answer 8

Excellent question. I think its more than legalization of abortion. Contraception and the removal of stigma of single parenthood also played a big part in this. In fact this is a topic currently on some feminist blogs. I believe its the choose life license plates. The money is not being used in the function that it should be. Its not going to mothers who raise their own children. Its not going to the women who put their children up for adoption.

The women's movement has ignored for the most part a woman's right to raise her own child. They will defend the right to abort to the hilt but the right to raise one's own child. That is a whole nother ball game that they don't want to look at.

Answer 9

There have never been a lack of babies available for adoption since the 'femanist movement' was first introduced. That is a myth, as thousands of children and babies are introduced into foster care for a variety of reasons.
Women are currently persuing more self oriented goals prior to having children, but many women are also having children later in life.....natural or with fertility treatments. I spent my 'fertile' years trying to get pregnant, and am about as 'femanist' as they come.....I want to adopt because I want to be a mommy and there are available children looking for a family to love them......I think we should teach girls about self-confidence, relationships, careers, etc....both at home and at school, so that they can make their own choices as to what their own priorities will be.

Answer 10

No, we should be educating society about infertility in general. Trust me, while fertility rates do drop after a certain age, many more younger women are experiencing infertility at alarming rates. An increasing amount of environmental factors are being attributed to infertility among young women.

It frustrates me when society "assumes" that I chose a career over children. I have been trying for 8+ years to have a child and the doctors can find no reason for the infertility other than I cannot conceive or carry a pregnancy. It has nothing to do with my age or choosing a career over children. I actually know many families who are/were in the same situation as us.