Childlessness in the Czech Republic: cohort perspective

The aim of this thesis is to analyze childless women in the Czech Republic and compare them to similar women in Slovakia, Netherlands and USA. The main statistical analysis used is generational fertility tables for women born between 1935 and 1968. The first part presents theories that attempt to explain the change of reproductive preferences which were distinctively different than the second half of the 20th century. According to the results of the analysis, there was a strong corrolational change of generational childlessness in western countries by women born shortly after World War II. In the Czech and Slovak Republic the same generational childlessness was observed in women born in the sixties. Furthermore, it analyzes the percentage of childless women in the Czech Republic, depending on their marital status, according to data take from the census, which took place after 1950. It was concluded that the percentage of childless women changed by single and married women. The work also studies attitudes and opinions regarding childlessness based on sample surveys. The results of this thesis show that there are a growing number of childless women in particular countries and also that there is a growing importance in studying this phenomenon