Childlessness bugs men more than women

A new study says that women are more comfortable with idea of childlessness than men. The research, published in the November issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family, shows that the results may be due to the fact that men experience “strong economic and social rewards” for being a father, while women experience more pressure and demands on their day-to-day life.

“On a basic level, for men and women, parenting and parenthood mean different things,” said study author Tanya Koropeckyj-Cox. “For me, it reflects that there’s something important happening in the experiences of men and women where those different experiences are leading to different perceptions of family, relationships, gender and children.”

Despite stereotypes that assume women care more about having children than men, this study says that it’s actually women who understand the costs more of having kids.

[Irene] Goldenberg [a professor emerita of psychiatry at University of California, Los Angeles] added that she thinks “women are not really going for childlessness, but that they are more attuned to the demands — both economic and social demands — of parenthood, and they carry more of these responsibilities.”
Nadine Kaslow, chief psychologist at Emory Medical School in Atlanta, viewed the findings similarly, adding that “women who are successful professionals make a choice that they don’t want to have children in their lives, because they have other things in their lives.” Men, however, “tend to think that is what you do in life. You grow up and have a baby.”

What do you guys think?