Childless women have always been particularly essential in human society because they often take upon themselves the task of nurturing those who are not their official biological responsibility—and no other group does this to such a large degree. Childless women have always run orphanages and schools and hospitals. They are midwives and nuns and providers of charity. They heal the sick and teach the arts and often they become indispensable on the battlefield of life. Literally, in some cases. (Florence Nightingale comes to mind.) Such
