The recent drop in fertility rates has renewed public debate about who is responsible for falling birth numbers, and a Daily Mail columnist says the conversation often targets women without children with harsh personal judgement.
Edwina Ings‑Chambers wrote that the average number of children per woman in England and Wales fell to 1.41 in 2024 — below the roughly 2.1 children per woman considered necessary to keep a population stable — and that the resulting commentary repeatedly singles out childless women. In a first‑person column published on the Daily Mail's Femail pages, she described a string of derogatory labels and personal attacks directed at women who do not have children, whether by choice or circumstance.
Ings‑Chambers recounted the names she and others have been given, from acronyms such as PANK (Professional Aunt No Kids) and the author's self‑coined variant "SPANK" for single, partnerless women, to terms used in other countries such as the Chinese label "leftover woman" and South Korea's recently rebranded "Gold Miss." She noted that support networks such as Gateway Women, founded in 2009 by former psychotherapist Jody Day, use the term "NoMo" (Not Mother) to describe women crossing into a life without children and to offer peer support for the emotional effects of non‑motherhood.
The column places those cultural labels alongside political commentary that has blamed individual women for demographic change. Ings‑Chambers cited statements by public figures who have linked lower birth rates to women’s personal decisions, saying such arguments often combine economic alarmism with characterisations of childless women as bitter or selfish.
She described two personal incidents to illustrate the practical and emotional consequences of that stigma. In one episode, a former female boss told Ings‑Chambers that, because she neither married nor had children, she had "nothing in [her] life that mattered except [her] job," a remark Ings‑Chambers said left her doubting her own worth at a difficult time. In another, she said a neighbour verbally attacked her in a communal hallway after assuming — incorrectly, Ings‑Chambers says — that she had been responsible for a left‑behind pram. The encounter, she wrote, quickly escalated into an extended tirade about selfishness and lack of empathy.
Those anecdotes were framed alongside a broader argument that public discussion too often overlooks structural and historical factors affecting fertility. Ings‑Chambers urged that social and economic changes over the past century — including shifts in women's labour force participation, relationship patterns and childcare infrastructure — bear examination, rather than focusing blame on individual women's choices or circumstances.
She also argued that the contributions of women without children are frequently ignored in debates about public services and social costs. Noting that some childless people have not used maternity services, childcare subsidies or schooling but have paid taxes into those systems, Ings‑Chambers asked for wider recognition of the social value that childless women can offer, citing compassion, time and experience as ways they participate in family and community life.
The columnist put the issue in population terms, saying that women without children account for a significant share of the female population in the United Kingdom — a figure she described as about 18 percent — and argued that their needs and experiences merit attention in public policy and social discourse.
Her piece also touched on differences in how men and women are treated in public discussion of fertility and family. She wrote that a childless man is seldom asked to justify his family status in the same way, and said the double standard contributes to the sense that non‑motherhood remains uniquely scrutinised and policed.
Ings‑Chambers concluded by calling for greater empathy in everyday interactions and for policymakers and commentators to consider complex social drivers behind demographic change. The Daily Mail column invited readers who identify as women without children to share their experiences via the paper's reader contact address.
Reporting on the intersecting cultural, political and personal dimensions of low birth rates, the column underscores how demographic statistics can intersect with social stigma and individual lives. Researchers and policymakers have long pointed to a range of structural factors influencing fertility, and public debate continues over how best to respond to demographic shifts while respecting personal circumstances and avoiding stigmatizing language.