Ageing without children: rural Wales.

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the pathways and adaptations to childlessness. It is based on data for 65 childless men and women who took part in the Bangor Longitudinal Study of Ageing (1979-1999) and survived to at least 1987. Interviews were conducted mainly in the homes of the respondents at 4 yearly intervals and both qualitative and quantitative data were recorded. The paper distinguishes between men and women and between those who married and those who never-married. The findings demonstrate contrasting life styles between childless men and childless women. Never-married childless men tend to have been employed in solitary occupations or those based on an all male workforce and to rely on dependency relationships with female kin, while men who marry rely heavily on their wives. Never-married women in contrast tend to be more independent and outgoing and to have worked in jobs which brought them into frequent contact with people. Most childless women who married had not worked after marriage; they had close relationships with husbands and on widowhood adopted an independent, self-sufficient lifestyle. The findings demonstrate more positive adaptations to childlessness among women than men.