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Book Review of The Childless Revolution

The Childless Revolution
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The Childless Revolution is a sensitive examination of why a growing number of women do not and in many cases choose not to have children. The author is a parent and step parent, so this book is certainly not anti-child; rather it is a call for women with and without children to understand and support each others' choices.

The majority of the book is dedicated to examining why women are or choose to be childless. Though most of the reasons are obvious (infertility, prioritizing career goals, etc.), Cain's narrative is nonetheless interesting because of the numerous personal accounts she shares by articulate women.

One topic which she discusses briefly in the final chapters is the concessions given to parents in the workplace, and financially in terms of taxes. Unfortunately she does not go much beyond acknowledging that these issues exist and are unfair to the childless/childfree, perhaps because they are too contentious and would disrupt her call for feminists uniting? She does recommend The Baby Boon: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless by Elinor Burkett, which examines these issues in depth...... I ordered that book immediately after finishing Cain's.

As a woman who is childfree by choice but respects the choices of my friends and loved ones to parent, I'm grateful for Cain's effort to present the perspective of myself and other women like me.