Why more and more women are choosing to be childfree.

Chai, a 33-year-old accounts manager from the Midlands, has also found a community of like-minded women online. In real life, while her parents and close friends support her independence, her extended family cannot understand her decision.

“I come from Africa,” she said, explaining that many of her relatives came from a culture where “women should give birth.”

“Being the person who opposes this idea is met with a lot of shock and disbelief.”

Chy does not feel comfortable being “responsible for someone else”. A child “needs love that I don’t think I can provide in abundance,” she says.

Her priorities include pursuing her career and traveling, things she believes will be “harder” with children.

Wanting to focus on a career is one of the key reasons women choose not to have children, the CSJ report says. In the year In 2023, the new Department of Social Commitment, citing a survey of over 1,500 women aged 18-35 in the UK, found that 38% of women who did not want to become mothers said it was because they wanted to advance their careers.

Almost half of respondents cited the high cost of childcare and 41% said they would want to move into a bigger house if they had children.

Chai thinks mothers don’t get enough support, and the cost of childcare and the current parental leave system “make it difficult for women to have a life outside of motherhood.”

She mentions one of her friends, who cut her school hours and dropped out of school so she could choose.

“If those systems had changed, maybe my decision would have been swayed earlier,” she tells me.

The CSJ report argues that, in the UK, “we need to place greater value on the role of motherhood” in social and public policy, and says motherhood was “highly valued” in the 20th century.