No fertility goddesses

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Carrie L. Lukas, vice president for policy and economics at the Independent Women's Forum, is a master at shuffling work and family. A stay-at-home mother of a 6-month-old girl, Molly, she also is the author of the new book "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism," which examines the hard data behind women and society.

The following are excerpts from an interview with Mrs. Lukas.

Q: What prompted you to write this book?

A: I've had so many conversations with my friends in the last few years about this subject. We realized how important those decisions are that you make in the 10 years after college. You choose your jobs; you're looking for a potential marriage partner. I really felt like there was bad information out there about it.

The issue that made me write this was I started to look at the fertility issue. That was the area in which I was shocked to see what a disservice the feminist movement has been to women.

In 2001, a group of doctors ran an ad just to make people aware of some of the things that affect fertility. They included smoking, [sexually transmitted diseases], weight and age. No one complained about the first things, but the feminists were incredibly upset about the last one.

The fact is that a lot of women aren't aware of the facts of fertility. They aren't aware that it declines after 27. I've had friends that were very misled, that are now struggling to get pregnant and thinking, boy, if they had known they were jeopardizing their possibility to have children, they wouldn't have done that. The feminist groups spend such a great deal of time and energy focusing on reproduction rights, it's amazing how little was focused on fertility issues.

Q: What if a woman doesn't want to have children?