Women who want to remain childfree are often called selfish. Or cold. Or uncaring. Or all of those things. I daresay that for most people, there are two reasons to have children: It's the societal norm It's old-age insurance For 1, many people don't think their decision thoroughly through, I've seen countless occasions where in a cricle of friends, one couple would start to have a child and soon the others follow. Whether it's a form of peer pressure/belonging by conforming or a kind of rivalry I cannot say. But having children often seems to be considered "just what you do". For 2, when being asked why a woman wants to remain childless - and we are always asked, always expected to justify ourselves for this decision, while rarely anyone questions wanting to have children, even in a hopelessly overpopulated world -, the last question asked is usually "But what are you gonna do when you're old and alone?" (answer: same thing as before, enjoying my life), insinuating that