Unwomanly Conduct: Challenges of Intentional Childlessness - Tapa dura

This study examines how women who decide not to become mothers challenge the very meaning of the word "woman" in our society. Grounded in her own experiences as a not-mothering woman, a social worker and a feminist activist, the author offers an account of the experience of childlessness and a theoretical examination of how society's idealization of motherhood is dependent upon the negative counterpoint of childlessness. This study is based on extensive interviews with 34 married women, ranging in age from 40 to 78, who have made the choice to be childless. These women talk at length about their decision and the author offers political analysis of their testimonies. The detailed information provided documents the personal challenges of living a life that contradicts patriarchal and social expectations, deconstructs the discourses on childlessness that are employed to encourage motherhood as the norm, and explores and recasts existing theories of gender.