Editing Wife (section)

==Childbearing==
[[File:Percentage of birth to unmarried women, selected countries, 1980 and 2007.png|350 px|thumb|Percentage of births to unmarried women, selected countries, 1980 and 2007.<ref name="non_mar1">{{cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db18.htm|title=Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States |work=CDC/National Center for Health Statistics|date=May 13, 2009|access-date=September 24, 2011}}</ref>]]
Traditionally, and still in many cultures, the role of a wife was closely tied to that of a [[mother]], by a strong expectation that a wife ought to bear children, while conversely, an unmarried woman should not have a [[Legitimacy (family law)|child out of wedlock]]. These views have changed in many parts of the world. Children born outside marriage have become more common in many countries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/out-wedlock-births-rise-worldwide|title=Out-of-Wedlock Births Rise Worldwide {{!}} YaleGlobal Online|website=yaleglobal.yale.edu|access-date=2020-01-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oecd.org/els/family/SF_2_4_Share_births_outside_marriage.pdf|title=SF2.4: Share of births outside of marriage|last=Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development|website=OECD Family Database|access-date=22 January 2020}}</ref>

Although some wives in particular in Western countries [[Childfree|choose not to have children]], such a choice is not accepted in some parts of the world. In [[northern Ghana]], for example, the payment of bride price signifies a woman's requirement to bear children, and women using birth control are at risk of threats and coercion.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bawah | first1 = Ayaga Agula | last2 = Akweongo | first2 = Patricia | last3 = Simmons | first3 = Ruth | last4 = Phillips | first4 = James F. | title = Women's fears and men's anxieties: the impact of family planning on gender relations in Northern Ghana | journal = [[Studies in Family Planning]] | volume = 30 | issue = 1 | pages = 54&ndash;66 | publisher = [[Wiley-Blackwell|Wiley]] on behalf of the [[Population Council]] | date = 1999 | doi = 10.1111/j.1728-4465.1999.00054.x | pmid = 10216896 | hdl = 2027.42/73927 | url = https://www.popcouncil.org/research/womens-fears-and-mens-anxieties-the-impact-of-family-planning-on-gender-rel | hdl-access = free | access-date = 2017-12-23 | archive-date = 2019-11-23 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191123123341/https://www.popcouncil.org/research/womens-fears-and-mens-anxieties-the-impact-of-family-planning-on-gender-rel | url-status = dead }} [http://www.popcouncil.org/uploads/pdfs/councilarticles/sfp/SFP301Bawah.pdf Pdf.]</ref> In addition, some religions are interpreted as requiring children in marriage; for instance, [[Pope Francis]] said in 2015 that choosing not to have children was selfish.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/11/pope-francis-the-choice-to-not-have-children-is-selfish|title=Pope Francis: not having children is selfish|author=Stephanie Kirchgaessner|work=the Guardian|date=11 February 2015}}</ref>