A blend of personal experiences and sociological research--Childfree by Choice is a compelling look at the pressure women (and particularly married women) face to fit into society's view of what a woman should become. A mother.

Since I am completing my doctorate in I/O psychology, I actually already knew some of Amy Blackstone's research. Particularly her work on sexual harrassment and gender in the workplace have been key readings I've done in school. But I have to admit when I picked up this book I didn't put together that this was written by that Amy Blackstone, which made it all the more exciting when I read it! She is an incredible researcher and woman, and I encourage you to look into other research she has done if you are passionate about women and issues women face in the work place.

In this book, Blackstone debunks many of the myths and stereotypes that surround families, women, and our role in society. Women who make the choice to not have children face separate issues from women who hope to have children and are unable to conceive. They are often looked at as cold or delusional. The number of times they hear "that will change when you are older/meet the right person/[enter reason here", when the reality is that many women find their lives completely full not having children.

A blend of academic research and personal narratives, this is a fantastic book for those who are making the same choice or who seek to learn more about why society pressures women to have children and why some women choose not to.

Thank you to Dutton for my copy. Opinions are my own.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who neither wants children nor enjoys being around large groups of kids, I appreciated this book. It's a good introduction to the topic, but seems a bit repetitive at times. For example, the same handful of scholars (and Kim Cattrall) are mentioned throughout the book--there has to be more research on being childfree. Part of me wanted more varied and numerous scholarly citations to back up the emotional and personal citations in the book.

This was an interesting read for me as a woman who has five kids but has many loved ones who are childfree (whom I've always wholeheartedly supported in that choice).

Parts were difficult to read, because Blackstone almost seems to have a need to tell us why those of us who do want kids are wrong and how miserable we all are once we have them. I'm not at all sorry to have my kids, and I suffered nearly a decade of miscarriages before I was able to have them. I don't agree with her assertions that we're more depressed, have a lower quality of life, etc. I'm not sure who she feels the need to tell this to so often. Maybe to reassure her readers that they've made the right choice? To convince others to join her? I don't know, but even though I'm on her side, by the end of the book I just flatly disliked her because she put down my side so much.

The book is well researched and interesting. I had no idea how many women (yes, this book focuses mostly on straight, white, middle class women) have made the decision to be childfree throughout history. I think she only sees the ones who are very much like her, ones who decided with their partners that they didn't want kids and never wavered. Several of my best friends came to the choice after painful soul searching, making the decision in order to stay in partnerships with spouses who said they would not have kids and it was a deal breaker if my friends wanted them. Those friends did choose to be childfree, but not in the same way she did and not as easily. This book is focused only on those women who always knew that they absolutely did not want children. Since the author and her husband run a blog for people who are joyfully and defensively (I'd say, judging from the quotes she shares in the book) childfree, I think she sees this group disproportionately and thus focuses on them disproportionately.

This was an interesting read but I don't know that it will offer anything new to those who already made this choice and it's likely to put off those who make different choices.

I read a digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

*** I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley. ***

As a millennial, I really relate to the premise of the book. I know a good number of other people who are child free or not expecting to have children until their 30s, but one of the most common questions I’m asked is how many kids I have.

I appreciate how the author goes into details about the societal expectations of having children, and how there are racial and class implications to these expectations as well. It was sad to learn about the history in the United States, and it was frustrating to see that these attitudes persist into current day given the implications of overpopulation and immigration. These negative societal views do affect the health of people with and without children; the amount of children you have is never enough or too many, according to our culture.

All of the facts in the book are cited and linked to the resources in the back, which was pleasantly surprising. I was pleasantly surprised by this since sometimes these books don’t include sources when making claims.

I included this title in a nonfiction roundup on my blog and will submit the link directly to the publisher in the next round of this process.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I decided to read this book because I thought it would be a testament to Blackstone's decision to not have children. However, this book is definitely more of a description of the movement of being "Childfree by Choice", as the title suggests. Blackstone covers topics including maternal instinct, happiness and aging and compares parents versus nonparents. As a sociologist herself, she quotes and references tons of different studies over the years that show that choosing not to parent won't ruin one's life. She also conducted her own series of interviews of childfree singles and couples for this book. I felt like Blackstone was being quite defensive of her position throughout the book, but it's understandable why it came across that way. As she explains, we live in a pronatalist world that leaves those who choose not to reproduce to defend their decision to others. The overall point that Blackstone is trying to get across is that people should have the freedom to make decisions for their own futures and that those that end up "childless", either by choice or not, should not be forever questioned whether they live an unhappy, regretful, bitter life. I look forward to reading some of the memoirs that she references to find those testaments I was seeking. I would definitely suggest this book to those who do not understand the choice that is being childfree. This book is not geared toward those who are unable to conceive biologically but reading the findings of studies comparing parents and nonparents in their late life could make this population comforted that their life isn't over.

An in-depth exploration of the history of the childfree and the discrimination and societal biases that comes with it. I read another book about this recently that was more experiential but did cover a lot of similar ground, so I only got about 25% into this comprehensive history and then skimmed the rest. As I said before in the review for the previous book, I'm lucky to live in the Bay Area where there's not much stigma, and my sisters have taken any pressure off that we would have gotten from my family with my nieces and nephews. So for me, it's not a big deal, but it's good that there is more attention being paid to the overall disparities and societal biases for women who decide not to have children.

Excellent Premise. Good yet flawed effort. As an introduction to the childfree movement and its history, this book serves as a solid primer for anyone who does not know either or both of these topics. As someone who is childfree and is active in various levels of working within the childfree community, I had *very* high hopes for this book. Unfortunately this book just had too many flaws to rate it any higher than the three stars I decided to give it. For one, it makes scientific claims using only sociological evidence. Which is perhaps allowed in the author's own background in the humanities and specifically sociology, but this reader is a trained scientist with a math and computer background. The book also tries to back up many of its claims with studies that often have only a couple of dozen participants or less - again, perhaps a valid tactic in sociological research circles, but in the statistical analysis world more familiar to this reader would be laughed out of even a bachelor's level statistics class. Also, while the book is titled referring to the entire childfree movement, its arguments and discussions are almost entirely from the female perspective, and even when the male perspective is included it is more often denigrated as too small to study or present. Finally, all of these combine to leave the severe impression of a major case of confirmation bias on the part of the author - even from someone predisposed to trying to see this book in the best possible light and wanting it to succeed in order to help bring light to an aspect of his own life.

Overall a solid yet flawed effort, and highly recommended despite the flaws - the conversation it presents is truly that critical, and the book does a genuinely adequate job of at least opening that conversation.

Solid, a little bit too political correctness and virtue signalling with the language used. An interesting subject to me, on a pretty personal level but a very big emphasis on how mean people with kids are to people who choose not to procreate. People are mean if you breathe wrong. Not really worth crying over honestly. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this pre-release, all opinions are my own.