The Independent's social affairs correspondent examines the repercussions of, and reasons for, a new study showing 20% of womyn won't be having kids...

	The most common reasons include fears over economic security and the low status that society gives families.	The growing numbers of women who remain childless are not stereotypical career-minded woman buried in work, or "ultra-feminists" who scorn family life, say researchers from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. While no one factor is responsible for a rise in childless women, the most common reasons include fears over economic security and the low status that society gives families. One in five women now of childbearing age will not have children. The figure is double that for women born in 1945. In a series of in-depth interviews with voluntarily childless women and some of their partners, women revealed a high degree of caution about assuming the responsibilities of being a parent. Parenthood was clearly identified with unwanted disruption and change in their lives as well as a heightened risk of financial insecurity. Around one-third of those interviewed said that they had made a firm decision not to have children, and never wavered. Others said that they had experienced some wavering but felt they had "come out the other side" with a clear decision not to start a family. About 10 per cent - women in their 40s - said that they had once thought they would have children but had since changed their view. A sizeable minority - one in six - still had mixed feelings.
	"There isn't room for giving anything less than 100 per cent to parenthood,"	Parental responsibility was variously described as "huge" and "imperative" and its permanence stressed. It was seen as a total commitment. "There isn't room for giving anything less than 100 per cent to parenthood," said one woman. For women on their own, single parenthood was something they did not want to contemplate. The dominant image was of parenthood as sacrifice, having to "give up" social lives, financial independence and in the case of women, jobs. There was not a simple choice between work or family, with many saying that early retirement was what they aimed for. Money was cited as a consideration in remaining childless by more than half of those interviewed. "They see parenthood as taking a big risk," said Fiona McAllister, one of the authors of the report. "They often feel they had struggled quite hard to get a better way of life, they had got to a position where they felt secure as just a couple living together." The low status of families in modern society was another important factor said Ceridwen Roberts, director of the Family Policy Studies Centre, which published the report. "The image of parenting in society is not a positive one. You are seen as a nuisance as the parent of a child in a public place or as a problem in work."
	You are seen as a nuisance as the parent of a child in a public place or as a problem in work.	She went on: "We also castigate parents about what is a good parent ... and at a subliminal level many people just do not feel up to the job . We are not a child-friendly society. People have to be assured that family life is worthwhile." Root Cartwright, 48, head of the British Organisation of Non-Parents, said he had chosen not to have children when he was 21: "I was appalled at the resentment shown to children by parents who expected them to be angels. "There is a tendency still to try and explain childlessness away. It is a choice and one that people should have."