Bezdetnosť – nový fenomén v ţivotných dráhach ţien na Slovensku

Women in Slovakia and in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe whose reproductive years overlapped with the previous political regime rarely opted not to have children, and childlessness thus became a marginal phenomenon. This study provides a detailed reconstruction of long-term childlessness trends among women in Slovakia. In addition, we focus on the changes in cohort fertility and especially in first births in connection to the future development of childlessness among women born in the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. A very important goal of this paper is to look more closely at a group of women who remain childless in a society where people married and had children at very early age and where becoming a mother was a general norm. Our analysis is based on the Population Censuses. Using the childlessness rate and binary logistical regression, we attempt to identify characteristics which determine whether women will remain childless or not. The main finding of this analysis is that Slovakia has experienced a U-shaped pattern in permanent childlessness in cohorts between 1900 and 1970. The lowest level was observed among women born around 1940. Cohorts from the late 1960s and the early 1970s experienced rapid increases in childlessness. According to our estimations the childlessness level among women born in the first half of the 1980s may reach 18 – 20 %. A detailed analysis of the structural characteristics of the childless women showed family status and education to have a significant impact on the likelihood to remain childless. Likewise, certain differences in childlessness levels are also found in women by nationality, religion and their place of residence