I get both! I'm in a relationship but will not marry. And I'm not having children so I get the Qs about my lack of a husband and lack of babies. Yes, many in Society believe that a woman's purpose in life is to be a wife and mother. So those of us who follow our own path are often deemed "deficient" or "confused" or "not real women" or "selfish." It's disheartening. That's why I started the thread. The more open we are with our individual truths, the more likely that people will start to see that there's > 1 way to live as a woman. Honestly, the toughest critics of unmarried women/women who choose not to have children are married women with children. Not all of them obviously but many. One single woman in her 60s has done a lot of research on it. She said that female Singletons often seem to trigger anxiety or resentment among married people just by existing. She even found cases of outright cruelty or aggression toward single women.

The study your mother mentioned is legit. I've heard of that one. Very interesting indeed.