A Path Not Taken: A Cultural Analysis of Regrets and Childlessness in the Lives of Older Women1

This paper explores regrets about childlessness in 90 older women interviewed using qualitative methods. Regrets were discussed in the context of the changing meaning of childlessness over the life course. We found that issues of regret are situated in a cultural system that renders childless women marginal. We argue that regrets should be understood in a wider cultural context that incorporates the cultural construction of the self over time