Latin American women opt against motherhood in shift from traditional gender roles

Record ID: 1986200

  • Title: Latin American women opt against motherhood in shift from traditional gender roles
  • Date: 28th March 2025
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (MARCH 25, 2025) (REUTERS) WOMEN CROSSING STREET WOMAN ON STREET WOMEN WALKING IN STREET BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (MARCH 11, 2025) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WOMEN AT A TALK BY THE NUNCA MADRES (NEVER MOTHERS) COMMUNITY VARIOUS OF CO-FOUNDER OF NUNCA MADRES (NEVER MOTHERS) COMMUNITY ISABEL CORTES DURING MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CO-FOUNDER OF NUNCA MADRES (NEVER
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Colombia Latin America Mexico Nunca Madres birth rates childbirth women
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: South America / Central America,Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA001189026032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A growing number of Latin American women are choosing not to give birth in a radical departure from the traditional family roles that have long dominated in the region.
    Latin America and the Caribbean has experienced the most dramatic decline in birth rates of any region globally since 1950, according to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL).
    As in South Korea, this has raised fears of an ageing population that burdens the taxpayer. But it also reflects how women are turning away from deeply-ingrained expectations of motherhood, in part because of a lack of state support and in part because they are prioritizing their own careers and livelihoods.
    Mexican property manager Iran Sosa founded the Nunca Madres (Never Mothers) global online community for Spanish-speaking women in 2021 with Isabel Cortes, a Colombian commodities trader, to address a lack of space where Latinas could discuss social issues and cultural taboos regarding decisions about motherhood.
    The group said many of the group's members say they feel pressured into motherhood, with relatives warning them they would regret the decision not to have children and would have no one to look after them as they grow old.
    As well as an online space, Nunca Madres runs workshops where people - including mothers - share information and advice on how their decisions have affected their lives, from societal stigma to workplace discrimination to personal finance.
    There is little global data on why women choose not to have children, but a Pew Research survey of U.S. adults last year found 57% of respondents under 50 who said they were unlikely to have children gave as a reason that they just didn't want to, 38% were concerned about the state of the world and 36% couldn't afford it.
    At Nunca Madres, Sosa said economic concerns were the top reason women gave, including the risk of losing their jobs or freezing career prospects, alongside the massive and often heavily lopsided unpaid labor of raising a child.
    Climate change, which is contributing to worsening natural disasters in the region, came next. Women questioned the wisdom of raising children in places where water is being rationed.
    (Production: Maria Laguna, Alicia Fernandez, Herbert Villarraga, Camilo Cohecha, Javier Andres Rojas, Liamar Ramos)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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