“Do you want children?”

It’s a question every woman faces. Of course, you don’t have to answer it to anyone but yourself – having a child is perhaps the biggest and most personal decision a woman can make. But that doesn’t stop hopeful parents, inquisitive colleagues and total strangers at dinner parties from asking it. Women’s bodies are always up for a bit of light discussion in this patriarchal world, after all, especially when it comes to making babies.

Any woman who has recently crossed over into her 30s will confirm that the same inquiry is made more fiercely and frequently around this time (damn you, totally unfair biological clock). But there are so many reasons why women are childfree in their 30s and beyond. Some physically cannot get pregnant. Others simply aren’t in a financial position to even consider starting a family. There are those who just don’t want kids or don’t see it as a priority in life. And plenty of women are waiting for the right relationship.

But whatever the reason is for a woman being childfree, societal pressures mean that we’re always made to feel like something is wrong with us. It’s an observation that activist Gloria Steinem, who never had children, recently shared in a podcast interview, saying: “People assume I must be unhappy or unfulfilled… in a way that they wouldn’t assume about a man.”

Fertility: 7 women over 30 share their honest thoughts about being childfree