Childfree
Childfree is a term used to describe indi-
viduals who neither have nor desire to have
children. An alternative term is childless by
choice. The choice not to procreate has been
a more available option since the develop-
ment of reliable birth control, and has be-
come more common since the 1960s. Child-
free groups began to form in the 1970s, most
notable among them The National Organiza-
tion for Non-Parents and No Kidding!. There
have been a significant number of books writ-
ten about the childfree, although quantitative
academic research on this group is just now
emerging.
The childfree are a diverse group of
people, much like the reasons behind the
choice not to procreate; however, childfree
people tend to be less conventional, more
highly educated, and professional.[1] Despite
similarities, childfree individuals do not share
a unified political or economic philosophy,
and most prominent organizations tend to be
social in nature. However, there are a range
of social positions related to the childfree
that some choose to endorse. To this end,
some political and social activism is starting
to emerge from a subset of this population.
Etymology and usage
An individual who neither has, nor desires to
have, children is known as a childfree indi-
vidual. The term is distinct from the term
"childless." Because the suffix "-less" implies
a lack, the term childfree has been adopted
to differentiate those who choose not to have
children from those who desire children but
do not have them.[2][3] Childfree persons as-
sert that their lives are no less complete than
the lives of parents.[4]
The Oxford English Dictionary has an
entry for the word "childfree," with the earli-
est example of the word dating from 1913.
The term "childfree" was used in a July 3,
1972 Time article on the creation of the Na-
tional Organization for Non-Parents [2]. It
was revived in the 1990s when Leslie Lafay-
ette formed a later childfree group, the Child-
free Network.[5]
The term is sometimes capitalized in regu-
lar usage, e.g., "