Choosing childlessness : resisting pronatalism and the emergence of a childless feminity

Abstract

The role of women and feminine identity have historically and traditionally been constructed around motherhood. Motherhood for women, has been seen to be natural and the desire for it unquestioned. However since the 1970s an increasing number of women have been shown to reject motherhood and choose childlessness. Thus, a distinction has emerged between women's traditional social role and understandings of feminine identity, and the experiences of an increasing number of women.

Drawing on a predominantly qualitative empirical study, the thesis examines the extent, meanings and significance of this trend, both for individual women and for wider society. In particular, it examines the implications of this trend for understandings of femininity and identity.

The thesis assesses: first, cultural discourses on motherhood, childlessness and feminine identity, and considers whether traditional pronatalist discourses still impact upon women's lives in the contemporary era: second, it assesses the processes and context associated with choosing childlessness: third, it assesses what might be the meaning of chosen childlessness in a society whereby motherhood has traditionally been seen to be normal, natural and inevitably desirable for women. Finally, and most importantly, the thesis assesses what might be the implications for understandings of identity of increasing chosen childlessness in women.

The principle findings that emerge from this include: first, voluntary childless women's resistance to cultural discourses associated with motherhood and childlessness, and the evolution of alternative discourses; and second, the emergence of a feminine identity distinct and uncoupled from motherhood, a childless femininity.

Finally, drawing on two different theoretical positions, that of Anthony Giddens and that of Judith Butler, the study contextualises these findings by providing a framework for understanding how resistance to cultural discourses and the emergence of a childless femininity have come about, and what might be the significance of these for understandings of femininity both for individual childless women and broader social understandings of identity.

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