A Demographic Shift

Finally, my demographic is being recognized (or should I clarify, my almost-demographic):

Twenty percent of women in the age range of 40-44 are having fewer or no kids compared to 30 years ago, according to the latest study by the Census Bureau.

As reported by the New York Times:

"Clearly women have competing alternatives for the use of their time, with the labor market and employment being one and delayed marriage, which has been another trend,” said Suzanne Bianchi, chairwoman of the sociology department at the University of Maryland. “The interesting question is, has it stopped? Is this it, or will we see even higher rates of childlessness among future generations?”

In economically under-developed nations, the logic has always been to improve the lot of women, and the birth rate goes down. I guess here in the U.S. we can consider the lot of women, at least for this age group, improved.