A historian of gender explores the complicated relationship between womanhood and motherhood  In an era of falling births, it's often said that millennials invented the idea of not having kids. But history is full of women without children—some who chose childless lives, others who wanted children but never had them, and still others—the vast majority, then and now—who fell somewhere in between. Modern women considering how and if children fit into their lives are products of their political, ecological, and cultural moment. But history also tells them that they are not alone.