Childless Women

One critical argument emerged from recent news was made by actress Jennifer Aniston on the issue of women’s identity in society was mainly assessed regarding their marital status and reproductive decision. In the essay published on Huffington Post, the actress criticized enduring notion that “women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful, or unhappy if they’re not married.” This particular perception has hindered the fight for independence and freedom of experiencing life other than motherhood. While both men and women realized the outcomes of childfree, in most cases, women were more pressured by society’s assumptions and stigmas, while men less concerned with making decision. The following paper focuses on the motivations behind voluntary childlessness …show more content…
Too often remarks such as selfish, self-centered, lacking in responsibility or cold were associated with childfree women (McQuillan et al., 2012). Since social norms has contributed to the definition of appropriate lifestyle through parenthood, childlessness in women was seen as a deviant from society, which further led to disconnection between parents and childfree women in many contexts. Childfree women felt like their value and identity were centered and focused on maternal status rather than the struggle they made for independence and the experience attained. In workplace, both single women and men were expected to carry heavier workload. The flexibility parents had in work was denied in childfree workers. Many studies showed that fathers tended to earn higher salary than single men, while in women the case was inverted. Facing disadvantages as being childfree in workplace might encourage men to have family and children, but knowing the cost of childbearing, women decided that the benefit of being childfree still outweighed …show more content…
Though tax incentives were proposed to encourage people to have children, they also punished singlehood and created more stigmas between parents and childfree women in the long run. With the number of of single workers on the rise, stigmas would only divide up the working environment and create discontents. Managers could prompt opportunities for workers to get to know each other more personal to promote better understanding of personal decision regardless of justifications. Constructing thorough policies offering the same flexibility for workers and restriction of enquiry of employees’ priorities outside work can make single workers less worried of getting backlash when asking for flexibility, thus putting less pressure on women to choose between work and