Racial Differences in Childlessness: A Centennial Review

Abstract

This article reviews black-white childlessness differences over the past century. These differences have been attributed to inequalities in social and health conditions. The historically greater rate of black childlessness has been treated as the result of pathological sterility or pregnancy loss due to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), malnutrition, and inadequate medical care. Conversely, white childlessness has been viewed as the product of decisions to be child-free, facilitated or encouraged by such things as prolonged schooling, the sex-role revolution, and effective contraception. Yet it is suggested that childlessness in both races has been shaped by the same basic factors, including social mobility, birth control, and changing family norms. Moreover, as a result of socioeconomic gains by blacks, patterns of marital childlessness by race are becoming alike, and voluntary childlessness may be growing among blacks as well as whites.