BDN interviews Blackstone about child-free choice, latest book
The Bangor Daily News spoke with Amy Blackstone, a professor in the Department of Sociology and the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine, about her research on the decision to not have children. “Society has always assumed that all women innately want to have children,” Blackstone said. “That’s simply not true. And if it’s selfish, well, if choosing not to do something because you don’t want to is selfish, then many, many things are selfish.” Blackstone’s new book, “Childfree By Choice: The Movement Redefining Family & Creating a New Age of Independence,” is equal parts rigorous academic research and memoir, with often-humorous personal anecdotes interlaced with information gleaned from Blackstone’s more than 10 years of study, the article states. “I found that there was very little research that had been done, anywhere,” Blackstone said. “Despite the fact that there have always been people that have chosen not to have children. And as it turns out, it’s a choice more and more women are making today.”