Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp.

223–234, 2000
Copyright © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd
Pergamon Printed in the USA. All rights reserved
0277-5395/00/$–see front matter

PII S0277-5395(00)00076-5

WHEN NO MEANS NO: DISBELIEF, DISREGARD AND

DEVIANCE AS DISCOURSES OF
VOLUNTARY CHILDLESSNESS

Rosemary Gillespie
University of Portsmouth, School of Social and Historical Studies, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3AS, UK

Synopsis — Cultural discourses of femininity and women’s social role have historically and tradition-
ally been constructed around motherhood. However, recent studies into women’s childbearing inten-
tions have revealed an increasing number of women in Western Europe and the United States choosing
to remain childless. Thus, a distinction has emerged between cultural discourses on femininity and the
experiences of an increasing number of women. This article considers the questions that emerge from
this. In particular, to what extent and in what ways might cultural discourses of motherhood and femi-
ninity have declined and transformed as women’s lives have changed. What might be the implications of
this for constructions of femininity and identity in women. Drawing on an empirical study into voluntary
childlessness amongst women, this article argues that pronatalist discourses and those that denigrate
voluntary childlessness persist despite the considerable changes and increased autonomy experienced
by women during the second half of the 20th century. However, through rejecting and resisting dis-
courses that conflate femininity with motherhood, childless women create new discourses that can sub-
vert and transform constructions of femininity. The article concludes that the advent of these new and
alternative discourses signify the emergence of a radical feminine identity, distinct and unshackled from
motherhood. © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Constructions of femininity and women’s so- 28.7 by 2000 (Central Statistics Office, 1997).
cial role have historically and traditionally Yet perhaps the most notable of these trends is
been contextualised around the practices and the increasing number of women who remain
symbolism surrounding motherhood. Mother- childless altogether. In 1991, twice as many
hood has predominantly been perceived as women stated that they expected to remain
natural for women, the desire for it inevitable, childless, compared to 1986; in 1947, 20% of
unquestioned and central to constructions of women were still childless at the age of 30, and
‘normal’ femininity (Erikson, 1964; Russo, for women born in 1967 this is estimated to be
1976; Stone, 1977; Nakano Glenn, 1994). 40% (Central Statistics Office, 1995). In 1991,
Yet, at the start of the 20th century signifi- the Office of Population Census and Surveys
cant transformations in women’s reproductive (OPCS) forecast that 20% of the 1960s, 1970s
experiences can be seen to be occurring. In the and 1980s British cohorts of women would re-
United Kingdom, Western Europe and the main childless; consequently higher levels of
United States, although most women continue childlessness seem set to remain (Central Sta-
to become mothers at some time in their lives, tistics Office, 1993). Although, as Frank, Bi-
women are having fewer children and having anchi, and Campana (1994) have highlighted,
them later in life. Between 1970 and 1995 in later childbearing may be directly related to
the United Kingdom, birth rates per woman higher levels of involuntary infertility, as fertil-
fell from 2.4 to 1.71 (Central Statistics Office, ity has been shown to decline with age. Never-
1997). The mean age of mothers at birth in En- theless, studies have shown that increasing
gland and Wales has risen from 26.4 in 1976 to numbers of women in Western Europe and
28.6 in 1996; this is expected to have risen to North America are rejecting motherhood and

223
224 Rosemary Gillespie

choosing childlessness (Bartlett, 1994; Camp- 1976); others who may be single, divorced,
bell, 1985; Ireland, 1993; McAllister & Clarke, black, poor, lesbian or disabled are perceived
1998; Morell, 1994). as less suitable/unsuitable (Phoenix, 1991;
This article will consider key questions that Smart, 1992; Williams, 1989). Nevertheless,
emerge from this. In particular, it will seek to Judaeo-Christian religious constructions of
establish whether, in the context of consider- womanhood as heterosexual, fertile, life-giving
able social change, and an increased autonomy and fecund, emphasise how bearing children,
experienced by women in the contemporary and the pain associated with childbirth, were
era, traditional, pronatalist cultural discourses seen to be God’s curse on Eve for her sins.
that position motherhood at the cornerstone Mary is upheld as a symbol of perfect woman-
of feminine identity, have diminished. Many hood, passive, obedient and a recipient of
women in the west for example, are able to ex- God’s will (Gittins, 1985).
ert greater control over their fertility through Key political perspectives, predominantly
the use of contraception. They spend less of those of the political right, have also rein-
their lives pregnant or childrearing. They are forced motherhood ideology. Conservatives
less confined to the private social space and and neo-liberals support what are seen to be
are more likely to engage in paid work. This traditional family values, associated with kin-
article will consider to what extent, and in ship, ‘natural’ social roles and the containment
what ways, social change has impacted upon of sexual behaviour within the nuclear family.
motherhood ideologies in ways that transmute In the 1990s, in the United States, born-again
them and reduce their significance. It will fur- Protestantism has been a powerful influence
ther consider what this might tell us about on the New Right coalition, whose agenda in-
women’s capacity to subvert and transform cludes preserving traditional family values and
cultural norms; and the extent to which this the restriction of the availability of abortion.
give rise to new femininity discourses, distinct In the United Kingdom, the Conservative
from motherhood. Thatcher and Major governments of the 1980s
The article begins by setting out the mean- and 1990s set out to reverse what they saw to
ings that have come to be associated with be the decline in traditional nuclear family val-
childlessness, and in particular voluntary child- ues, by setting themselves up as the Party of
lessness, through an examination of the cul- the Family, and with a Back to Basics cam-
tural discourses that encompass and define paign. Similarly, in the late 1990s New Labour
both motherhood and childlessness. In order have also been quick to set out their position
to assess the extent to which pronatalist dis- on the importance of ‘family values’.
courses continue to be pervasive and wide- Modern science has also authenticated tra-
spread, and what might be the effects of this on ditional understandings of feminine identity
women in the contemporary era, I will draw and motherhood, examples include the socio-
upon the findings of an empirical study into biology of Darwin and more recently that of
the experiences of 25 voluntarily childless Richard Dawkins (1989). Freud (1925) also
women from a large city in the South of En- produced an analysis of gender difference
gland. I conclude by considering the implica- based on cognitive processes grounded in geni-
tions of voluntary childlessness for broader tal difference that contextualised ‘normal’
constructions of femininity and identity. feminine identity around motherhood. Freud’s
theories formed the backdrop for the subse-
quent popularisation of psychology that pre-
DISCOURSES OF MOTHERHOOD
cipitated influential discourses that positioned
AND CHILDLESSNESS
the mother at the centre in the successful up-
Ideas, both essentialist and determinist, that bringing of the child (Bowlby, 1953; Winnicott,
motherhood is fixed, unchanging, natural, ful- 1964).
filling and in particular, central to feminine However, perhaps the most powerful player
identity have become entrenched in western in scientific endorsement of the centrality of
culture (Russo, 1976; Stone, 1977). Although motherhood to constructions of femininity and
predominantly married and heterosexual women’s health has been that of modern medi-
women have been seen to conform the notion cine. Reproductive medicine, for example, has
of the ideal mother (DiLapi, 1987; Macintyre, drawn on knowledge and control over women’s
 Discourses of Voluntary Childlessness 225

bodies, accessible only to a comparably small, Nachtigall, 1994; Strickler, 1992; Hayes, 1992).
male-dominated group of medical experts However, whilst women who are involuntarily
(Ehrenreich & English, 1979; Faulkner & Ar- childless have been seen to be worthy of sym-
nold, 1985; Scully & Bart, 1978). Martin (1989) pathy, resources and support, women who
has highlighted that medical culture provides a choose not to mother, who are voluntarily
powerful ideology and system of socialisation, childless, have been understood in ways that
whose ideas, discourse and practices pervade emphasise their selfishness and their deviance,
everyday life. As Rose, Steven, Kamin, Leon, as aberrant, immature, and unfeminine (Ire-
& Lewontin (1984) have argued, “what is bio- land, 1993; Macintyre, 1976; Somers, 1993;
logical is given in nature and proved by sci- McAllister & Clarke, 1998; Stewart & Robin-
ence” (p. 6). son, 1989). Joan Smith (1996) has argued that,
In sum, motherhood discourses can be seen even in the 1990s, the increasing numbers of
to be drawn from, and enmeshed in powerful, women who are choosing childlessness are of-
hegemonic ideological doctrines. Experts and ten subject to scorn and contempt.
opinion formers constitute powerful elites who
have been able to privilege their accounts of
the natural inevitability of a desire for mother-
Social change
hood in women; of motherhood as women’s
principle social role; and crucially, the central- As the trend for childlessness has emerged,
ity of motherhood to understandings of femi- so has a growing body of literature that has en-
nine identity. Lukes (1974) argued that the deavoured to understand it. Recent accounts
most insidious form of power is to shape peo- have predominantly sought to interpret the
ples’ perceptions so that they do not question trend within explanations associated with
the social order. Motherhood ideologies have broad macro explanations of social change
been seen to pass into popular discourse and (Bartlett, 1994; Campbell, 1985; Ireland, 1993;
everyday understanding and become ‘truth’ McAllister & Clarke, 1998; Morell, 1994). In
and ‘facts’, which inform the understandings of particular, following the influence of Second
women (Boulton, 1983; Nicholson, 1993). Con- Wave feminism, new opportunities, freedoms
sequently, the nurturance of children has his- and choices, denied to previous generations of
torically been seen to be what women do, and women, have come to be available. Many
mothers have been seen to be what women women now have access to safe abortion, con-
are, constituting the central core of normal, traception and reproductive technologies that
healthy feminine identity, women’s social role enable them to exert greater control over their
and ultimately the meanings of the term fertility, in terms of whether, when and in what
woman. context they will have children (Richardson,
Nevertheless, just as motherhood has been 1993; Holdsworth, 1988). As Ireland (1993) em-
constructed as central to understandings of phasises, increased reproductive choice has
‘normal’ adult femininity, women who are not brought the possibility of chosen childlessness
mothers have frequently been seen to be ‘un- into the lives of many women. Diverse family
natural’ and are pitied or vilified. Failure to configurations, the changing nature of human
become a mother is interpreted within a west- relationships and women’s wider participation
ern biomedical framework as a physical or psy- in paid work, all have meant that options for
chological illness (Becker & Nachtigall, 1994; women other than motherhood have become
Hayes, 1992; Strickler, 1992). The physical in- increasingly available (Becker, 1981; Condy,
ability to have children, or the ‘failed body’ as- 1991; Faux, 1984; Safer, 1996; Veevers, 1983).
sociated with involuntary childlessness, is con- The effect of social change has been to give
structed in medical terms as infertility, rise to a range of new discourses associated
synonymous with notions of illness and dis- with a ‘new femininity’. As women increas-
ease. Infertility is dominated by medical dis- ingly engage in new roles, new contemporary
courses associated with abnormality, treat- discourses, associated with a wider diversity of
ment and cure. Once diagnosed, the usual feminine experience, expectations and iden-
course of action is medicalisation and treat- tity, increasingly become relevant. At the end
ment in the hope of bringing about a preg- of the 1990s new emergent discourses exempli-
nancy and the birth of a child (Becker & fying women’s greater sexual freedom and in-
226 Rosemary Gillespie

dependence are evident through for example: though a minority were ambiguous about their
an increasing market for lifestyle magazines choice, several had made the decision at a
for women such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue and young age and now in their 40s and 50s had no
Red; television situation comedies, such as regrets; other younger participants predomi-
Ellen, Friends and Ally McBeal; and contem- nantly stated that they did not intend to
porary lifestyle literature such as Bridget change their minds. However, whereas Camp-
Jones’s Diary (Fielding, 1996). Consequently, bell’s study focused predominantly on child-
cultural discourses associated with a mother- free women’s ‘journey’ to sterilisation, this
hood imperative increasingly co-exist along- study considered questions concerning the
side a wide variety of alternative and compet- persistence of pronatalist discourses. Drawing
ing discourses. on a small qualitative study, using in-depth,
As women’s lives have become trans- semi-structured interviews with 25 voluntarily
formed, it would be reasonable to anticipate childless women, the remainder of this article
that traditional pronatalist discourses would will address these questions. I will consider
become outdated and diminish. Yet have den- whether traditional discourses of motherhood
igratory discourses of chosen childlessness and childlessness have transformed or dimin-
broken down, as women are increasingly in- ished, or simply become more sophisticated
volved in roles other than motherhood, and as and subtle in the ways that continue to project
more of them choose childlessness? Or might a pronatalist mandate. Finally, I will consider
they simply have become transformed in ways what might be the implications of these find-
that accommodate social change, yet still con- ings for broader constructions of femininity
vey expectations that women will become and identity.
mothers.
McAllister and Clarke (1998) have empha-
sised that studies into childlessness have pre-
dominantly not distinguished between volun- THE STUDY
tarily and involuntarily childless women.
Methods
Studies that do distinguish often highlight
what is for some the complexity of the decision The study took place in the summer of 1996
to remain childless. Several suggest, for exam- in a large city in the south of England. Partici-
ple, that the choice to remain childless is often pants were recruited from a Family Planning
ambiguous and vague; qualitatively different Clinic (FPC). This venue was chosen because
between different women, in different social clinic attenders constituted a sample of
circumstances and at different times in their women, many of whom were confronting re-
lives (Campbell, 1985; Morell, 1994; Veevers, productive choices through the use of contra-
1983). Some studies have considered voluntar- ception. It was assumed that a proportion of
ily childlessness within specific social group- these might be voluntarily childless and that
ings, such as those in partnered, heterosexual key questions concerning their childlessness
relationships (Burgwyn, 1983; Campbell, might be explored. Initially out of all the
1985; Morell, 1994; Safer, 1996); or those who women approached during a twice-weekly
have sought sterilisation (Campbell, 1999). evening clinic over a 12-week period, a group
Others have predominantly considered the of 266 consented to complete an initial intro-
policy implications of growing childlessness ductory questionnaire. The questionnaire es-
(Bouwens, Beets, & Schippers, 1996; Condy, tablished first whether respondents were al-
1991). McAllister and Clarke have suggested ready mothers, and second if they intended
that few women make an early and irrevocable to become mothers in the future. It enabled
decision to remain childless; rather that choice some comparisons to be made between those
is an ongoing process-taking place over time, who intended to remain childless and the re-
and in the context of life events, such as rela- mainder.
tionships. However, as with Campbell’s (1999) A total of 33 defined themselves as volun-
study into sterilised childfree women, partici- tarily childless and stated their intention to re-
pants in this study predominantly described main so. These were contacted by telephone or
themselves as having chosen childlessness and letter and invited for interview. Subsequently,
stated their intention to remain that way. Al- 25 women aged between 18 and 51 agreed to
 Discourses of Voluntary Childlessness 227

be interviewed. Qualitative methods seek to choice; and finally a conviction that childless-
explore and legitimise the lives from which ness represented a deviant choice.
they are drawn by enabling individuals to give
an account of their experiences (Stanley &
DISBELIEF OF EXPLANATIONS OF
Wise, 1983). In doing so, they help to validate
VOLUNTARY CHILDLESSNESS
experience and enable the voices of those pre-
viously silenced to be heard (Cotterill & Participants described the ways others fre-
Letherby, 1993). Using qualitative interviews, quently disbelieved that they had chosen child-
and maintaining anonymity through the use of lessness. They described how their choice was
pseudonyms, participants shared their subjec- often re-cast by others as different more ‘legiti-
tive experiences of voluntary childlessness. Al- mate’ explanations were superimposed. These
though the findings of a small study cannot included presuppositions of infertility or other
provide a comprehensive picture, neverthe- manifestations of fertility denied.
less, the findings here offer useful insights into Wendy, a 31-year-old administrator had
the meanings and experiences of childlessness. been married for 10 years and lived with her
They also help to foster debate and raise key husband. She described how childlessness was
issues for further research. assumed to be infertility by family members.

Wendy: Dave’s granddad asked me, at a fam-

Findings
ily wedding, if I was barren. I’ll never forget
Of the 33 respondents in the voluntary it, it was like that scene out of the film Edu-
childless sub-group, all but 1 were white; all cating Rita, it was clear he assumed that no
but 2 defined their sexuality as heterosexual. children meant can’t have children.
Perhaps due to the overtly heterosexual envi-
ronment of the FPC, 10 questionnaire respon- Saffron, a 51-year-old married, writer and
dents had chosen not to disclose their sexual- lecturer described how her status as a childless
ity. Wellings, Field, Johnson, and Wadsworth woman finally ‘fell into place’ for others when
(1994) have argued that lesbian or bi-sexual she had a hysterectomy.
orientations may be under-reported in surveys
because they can be stigmatising. In addition, Saffron: . . . it was when I had my hysterec-
sexual orientation may not conform to specific tomy. Something clicked with them. Oh that
categories. For example, lesbian identity may is why she never had children because she
not exclude heterosexual practice, possibly had problems, because she couldn’t. It was
precipitating attendance at a FPC. Studies just assumed despite everything I had said.
have emphasised that it is the more highly edu-
cated women who remain childless (Joshi, A second way in which participants’ ac-
1989; McAllister & Clarke, 1998; Veevers, counts were disbelieved, was through explain-
1983). These findings were also supported ing childlessness in terms of the ‘career
here. Educational achievement was higher in women’. Alice, a 33-year-old solicitor lived
the voluntarily childless sub-group, 75% hav- with her female partner and her cat. A keen
ing achieved A level or university degree, com- gardener, she decided many years ago that she
pared with only 48% of the remainder. Simi- did not wish to have children. She emphasised
larly, 30% were employed in managerial or the ways others perceptions of her conformed
professional occupations, compared with only to stereotypes of the hard, ruthless, unfemi-
13% of the remainder. nine, childless ‘career woman’; of motherhood
The qualitative interview participants ex- denied.
emplified how normative, pronatalist cultural
discourses remained evident. They emphasised Alice: I do experience having to provide an
how others seemed extraordinarily uncon- explanation for being as old as I am, almost
strained, offering interpretations, explana- 33 and yet not having children, not having
tions and in particular, denigrations of their married. The expectation is that you will
childlessness. This predominantly centred marry and have children. . . . I take my career
around disbelief that childlessness was by very seriously, and they say: ‘Oh that is fine.
choice; disregard of childlessness as a valid You are a career women’. You can then fit
228 Rosemary Gillespie

into a different category. In a way it is al- assumed ‘inevitability’ of heterosexual part-

lowed, it is a respectable alternative. . . . nerships. Alice described how, in the law firm
where she worked, the assumption made by
Similarly, Lisa, a 36-year-old administrator managers that women would leave to have
had been married for 5 years. Enjoying the children was used to deny them opportunities.
freedom that a childless lifestyle afforded, she When she asserted that she did not intend to
emphasised how rejecting motherhood led to have children, it was presumed that she would
others perceiving her as ‘hard’. change her mind.

Lisa: I think the perception of me is that I am Alice: . . . as an articled clerk a few years ago
a hard-nosed career women. . . . . They think it was revealed to me that not many young
it is not that I don’t want to have a family, women could be selected to be articled
but that I am hard, driven, that I have not al- clerks, because the firm selected those who it
lowed myself a family, that the pressure to considered to be future partners. And it
succeed has prevented it in some way. would inevitably lose along the way most of
the women. And the same person in the
These explanations, reframing participants’ same discussion told me when I said I don’t
accounts of childlessness as involuntary through intent to have any: ‘Oh you will change your
ideas about hidden infertility and motherhood mind’. I resented it because it suggested that
denied through careers, emphasised others’ I didn’t know my own mind. My own judge-
perceptions of the ‘unfortunate’ nature of child- ment was flawed. . . . I was not an adult.
lessness. Others generally accepted women’s
wider participation in the paid workforce, yet Denials of women’s accounts often involved
they did not accommodate the notion of women the suggestion that they would change their
choosing childlessness comfortably within this. minds when they ‘met the right man’.
Treating their accounts as unreliable, mirrors Katherine, a 21-year-old who had recently
the ways in which women’s reports of sexual vi- graduated with an honours degree, lived with
olence have often not been believed by the me- her boyfriend. She hoped to become a journal-
dia and the criminal justice system (Smart, 1992; ist and considered there to be no place for a
Stanko, 1985). Consequently, by negating and child in her chosen lifestyle
disbelieving women’s accounts, motherhood as
natural, fulfilling, universally desirable and cen- Katherine: They don’t like it, they say: ‘Oh,
tral to understandings of femininity remains un- you’ll change your mind. You’ll meet the
challenged and intact. Disbelieving participants’ right person’. . . . It’s like I don’t know what I
accounts provided a way in which childlessness want. I haven’t made up my mind yet; ha-
could be accommodated within traditional cul- ven’t grown up which is very patronizing. . . .
tural discourses. I just don’t want children.

Lynne, who was 32 and married, described

DISREGARD OF EXPLANATIONS OF
not being taken seriously by her physician
VOLUNTARY CHILDLESSNESS
when seeking sterilisation.
Participants also described the ways others dis-
regarded their accounts of voluntary childless- Lynne: I have made all kinds of noises, with
ness. Often this was by inferring they would my GP, with the Clinic and all over the place
‘change their mind’. As Letherby (1994) has to say that I want to be sterilised. But they
argued, women who have no children are fre- just won’t have it, because I’m too young. . . .
quently themselves considered to be childlike. I am too young to know what I want, if what
Participants in this study described how others I want is not to be a mother. It would be dif-
saw them as not yet having passed into the ferent if I wanted to be a mother. I would not
normal adult female role, and therefore had be too young then.
not yet made the ‘normal’ adult decision to be-
come mothers. Thus, participants were simply The policy of refusing sterilisation for
posited as future mothers, who would change young women is based on the idea that it will
their minds with the onset of maturity and the ultimately lead them seeking reversal, when
 Discourses of Voluntary Childlessness 229

they ‘inevitably’ change their mind (Gillett, Lynne: People have said: ‘You don’t know
Martin, & Romans, 1993). Campbell (1999) what you’re missing out on, it’s such a joy,
has described how young women seeking ster- you won’t have grandchildren’.
ilisation are frequently refused, disbelieved
and infantised. This paternalism reinforces the Disregarding voluntarily childless women’s
idea of childless women as childlike, whereby explanations of their choice as irrational, tem-
doctors inevitably ‘know best’ and over-rule porary or something they would come to re-
women’s decisions ‘for their own good’ gret marginalises their accounts of their
(Ehrenreich & English, 1979). Recent exam- choice. As with disbelief, negating women’s
ples in the United Kingdom of medical pater- account through disregarding preserves no-
nalism, whereby women’s reproductive deci- tions of motherhood as natural, inevitably de-
sions have been over-ruled by others include: sirable and central to understandings of femi-
the surgical removal of a women’s ovaries ninity.
without her consent; and the deployment of
the Mental Health Act to enforce a caesarean
VOLUNTARY CHILDLESSNESS
section against the will of ‘Ms S’ (Scott, 1998).
AS DEVIANCE
An assumption that childless women will
change their minds, and that others ‘know bet- Letherby (1999) has highlighted that non-
ter’ reinforces childlessness as an inappropri- mothers both involuntary and voluntary are
ate, temporary choice; and of childless women considered outsiders or ‘other’. However, for
themselves as childlike. those who have chosen to reject motherhood,
A further way in which voluntary childless- their outsider status is further constructed as
ness was disregarded as a legitimate choice deviance (Ireland, 1993; McAllister & Clarke,
was through assumptions that participants 1998; Macintyre, 1976; Somers, 1993; Stewart
would ultimately come to regret childlessness. & Robinson, 1989). Lesley, for example, a 41-
Explanations grounded in future regret draw year-old local government officer who had co-
on traditional, medical and psychological ex- habited with her male partner for 20 years,
planatory theories of femininity that only made the decision to remain childless when
through motherhood can women be truly ful- herself still a child and could not imagine any
filled. Yet ideas surrounding children and ful- circumstances whereby she might feel differ-
filment were also frequently juxtaposed with ently about motherhood. She described how
ideas about the ‘payback’ of parenting, of chil- her partner’s family perceived her as ‘strange’.
dren as a resource for company and care in old
age. Sandra, a 49-year-old university re- Lesley: One of my partner’s, well his sister-
searcher, had experienced tacit disapproval in-law actually, said to me one day: ‘Isn’t it
from friends as well as more overt criticism about time you had children?’ and I just
suggesting that she would regret her choice, as looked at her and said: ‘Well actually I’d
children might be needed as carers in old age. rather have another dog’. The look of hor-
She lived with her male partner and was in- ror. It’s never been mentioned again . . .
volved in the care of elderly relatives and had there is an element of, there could be some-
never wanted to be a mother. thing strange about her.

Sandra: I think some of them think that we Annette, a 26-year-old police officer with
will regret it later on. But if they think that, the local vice squad had been married for 1
sorry but that is not the reason that you have year. She experienced considerable pressure
children. . . . One person in particular said: from her husband’s family to have a baby, de-
‘Who is going to look after you when you get scribing how her decision to remain childless
old?’. I am currently looking after my own set her out as a ‘black sheep’.
elderly parents and I would not wish that on
anyone. Annette: It makes me feel like I’m not seen
as Annette who does all these other things.
Similarly, Lynne described how the ‘joy’ Just Annette who may one day have a kid
that she was missing out on was emphasised to and we will wait for that . . . but it makes me
her by friends and colleagues. feel a bit of a black sheep.
230 Rosemary Gillespie

Sally was a 30-year-old college lecturer, di- that women who become mothers have not
vorced, lived alone and had no current part- (Morell, 1994). Dyson (1993) has emphasised
ner. She had decided to remain childless since that chosen childlessness is often incompre-
her childhood. She described how she was per- hensible to others who feel the need to express
ceived by acquaintances to be deviant, preda- their bewilderment. Participants in this study
tory and dangerous due to her lack of a desire described how others interpreted their choice
for a child. to remain childless through disbelief, disregard
and as deviance. Transgressing the norm of
Sally: I have had it from men at dinner par- motherhood often led to confrontation, resent-
ties, stuff like: ‘Oh my God, is she mad? You ment and conflict, described by Campbell
can almost see it in their eyes. A woman and (1985) as the ‘consequence of difference’. The
she doesn’t want to get married and settle findings here exemplify how pronatalist dis-
down and have babies. There must be some- courses are persistent, widespread and that
thing wrong with her’. voluntarily childless women encounter them in
their every day lives.
Deviance was also exemplified through no- Yet the persistence of these discourses
tions of childlessness as ‘selfish’. For example, needs to be understood in the social context
Mary, a 49-year-old occupational health nurse, within which it arises. In particular, changes to
single, with no current partner, had never women’s lives have meant that expectations
wanted to have children. She had travelled that women will remain located within the pri-
widely and lived abroad. vate social sphere, or within the nuclear fam-
ily, dependent upon a male breadwinner, have
Mary: There is a girl, a friend, funnily become unrealistic. In this study, women’s role
enough a nurse, who thought it was quite un- in wider society was generally well accepted by
speakable, that I was not going out and doing others; the motherhood mandate was not one
my womanly thing by getting married and whereby women were expected to remain
having my 2.4 children. solely in the home. Yet despite women’s in-
creased participation in the paid workforce
Participants described the ways making during the second half of the twentieth cen-
choices that met their own needs through tury, their working patterns remain signifi-
choosing childlessness, rather than the needs cantly different from those of men (Smith,
of others through motherhood, was framed as 1997). Much of the liberal feminist struggle has
selfishness and unfeminine. Lack of a desire to been to attain ‘women friendly’ flexible work
mother was conceptualised in terms of devi- practices, allowing them to combine paid work
ance and abnormality, as it transgressed cul- with family responsibilities. Women’s primary
tural images of femininity; of nurturing and responsibilities are still seen to be motherhood
self sacrifice, associated with motherhood. and the care of children, creating what has
widely come to be termed women’s ‘dual
roles’. Consequently, women’s increased par-
ticipation in the labour market has occurred
DISCUSSION
within a context of flexible mothering prac-
Weedon (1987) has suggested that the mainte- tices, as they combine paid work with mother-
nance of ideology requires the discrediting and hood, often described in terms of ‘having it
marginalising of experience which seeks to re- all’.
define it. Women who transgress discourses of New discourses that posit women as having
what constitutes suitable ‘normal’ behaviour it all indicate that rather than decline, mother-
for women come to be constructed as selfish, hood discourses may have simply changed,
deviant and ultimately unfeminine (Butler, modernised and become more sophisticated in
1990; DiLapi, 1987; Ireland, 1993). As Morell ways that accommodate social change. For ex-
(1994) has argued, the normalising of mother- ample, studies into women’s increasing labour
hood has been perpetuated through discourses force participation exemplify how it is as-
that deprecate childless women. Thus, women sumed that women engage in paid work in
who choose to remain childless have been combination with their responsibilities in the
‘called upon to account for themselves’ in ways home (Shelton, 1990; Spitze, 1988). In addi-
 Discourses of Voluntary Childlessness 231

tion, as a result of women’s greater presence in Victoria: I see women as women, not as
the paid workforce, perceptions of women mothers. I don’t feel any less feminine be-
combining occupational roles with mother- cause I am not a mother.
hood have resulted in the flourishing of images
of the ‘superwoman’. For example, references Lisa: I think it (motherhood) is natural but I
to high profile women such as businesswoman don’t know if it is any more so to have chil-
Nichola Horlick and QC Cherie Booth are of- dren than to not have them. Not having chil-
ten sanitised by juxtaposed images and refer- dren it just feels right for me.
ences to their homes and families. Cultural dis-
courses associated with motherhood and Sawicki (1991) drawing on a position influ-
femininity in the late 1990s acknowledge enced by Foucault, argues that discourses are
women’s greater independence and participa- never totalising. Rather, she suggests, discourse
tion in the public world. However, women are is a site of conflict and struggle that potentiates
predominantly expected to accommodate transformation. Similarly, Bordo (1993) asserts
motherhood within these circumstances, that dominant discourses which define feminin-
rather than to choose childlessness. Thus, de- ity give rise to the eruption of difference and
spite significant social change, and despite the subversion of meaning. She argues that
women’s gains in terms of fertility control and power relations are never seamless, but contin-
greater freedom, pronatalist cultural dis- ually expedite new forms of culture and subjec-
courses and those that posit motherhood at the tivity that can precipitate change. Conse-
cornerstone of feminine identity persist, albeit quently, it is through deconstruction, through
in a manner recast and transformed. challenging the ways certain ideologies have fil-
Hall and Du Gay (1996) argued that identi- tered into notions of ‘common sense’ and
ties are constructed through difference, ‘truth’, that alternative, competing, less oppres-
through what sets individuals apart or ‘other’, sive discourses can emerge (Parker, 1989).
rather than what unites them. In the context of However, the eruption of difference and
non-mothers, Letherby (1999) has defined this the re-signifying of gender identity may be a
as the ‘stranger’. Significantly though, what complex and incremental process. Several, de-
emerged from the findings here was the ways spite having rejected motherhood discourses,
voluntarily childlessness women themselves drew upon other stereotypes of femininity in
resisted these discourses. Although they de- describing themselves.
scribed their exposure to often-robust prona-
talism and denigration of their childlessness, Wendy: To me being feminine is wearing
they vigorously rejected these; highlighting beautiful underwear, nice clothes, painted
what was at times a radical childless femininity, nails. . . . I like to look after myself, I like to
distinct and unshackled from motherhood. look good, attractive.
Their frustration and anger at others’ negation
of their accounts was powerfully evident in Judith: I don’t feel any less feminine for not
their responses. Voluntarily childless women being a mother. In some ways I feel more
strongly rejected assumptions that lives were feminine because I’ve got a better figure. . . .
barren, fruitless and indulgent; and of child- I’ve only had myself to think about so I can
lessness as failed or flawed femininity. Saffron, take better care of myself. . . . I think its
for example, was proud of her childlessness. more positive than negative. I wouldn’t think
it would detract from me.
Saffron: I think if I was asked to describe my-
self, I would say: “I am 50, I am a writer and A further example of the immutability of
I have no children”. It (childlessness) would discourse was evident in the ways some partici-
be near the top of the list in describing who I pants explained their childlessness in stereo-
am. typical ways. Alice, for example, drew on a
comparison with Margaret Thatcher to explain
Other examples of resistance included Vic- perceptions of her as a ‘hard’ career woman.
toria and Lisa, who were comfortable with
their choice and angry with others attempts to Alice: If you are a career women, it is an al-
diminish them. ternative. Although the mother is the proper
232 Rosemary Gillespie

woman, and I am the sort of the Mrs struggle against others’ denigration. I have ar-
Thatcher alternative, probably a ruthless gued elsewhere that despite the project of con-
bitch. temporary feminism being to challenge taken-
for-granted assumptions about women’s lives
Love and nurturing of animals by childless and to validate difference, diversity and sub-
women has been framed in the context of child jectivity in women, feminism has predomi-
substitution (Morell, 1994). Participants also nantly failed to accommodate the experiences
drew on these stereotypes to describe them- of the voluntary childless (Gillespie, 1999). Al-
selves. though much of the political project of femi-
nism has been to promote reproductive choice
Victoria: I am quite a cat person. . . . I won- and reproductive rights; many second wave
der if this outpouring of love is what I would and contemporary feminists, whilst critical of
have given a child. But I never had a desire the conditions within which women mother,
to do that with a child. But with a cat, even if have themselves failed to challenge the idea of
I see a cat in the street, I just want to pick a fixed, innate or inherent imperative in
it up. women for motherhood (Chodorow, 1978;
Daly, 1979; Martin, 1989; Oakley, 1972, 1976,
Similarly, animals were an important focus for 1980; Rabuzzi, 1994; Rich, 1977). In Frazer and
nurturing for Saffron. Nicholson (1990), for example, critical ac-
counts of “unitary notions of women and femi-
Saffron: . . . I am very fond of my dog. I have nine gender identity” refer to what they term
always loved my dogs with a great passion. I “ahistorical . . . categories like reproduction
feel they take up the emotional slack. I love and mothering” (p. 34). As Letherby (1994)
them more than I ought to and I feel deci- has argued, it is crucial for feminism that the
mated when they die. . . . Most of my cud- lives of women who do not mother are re-
dling needs are taken up by the dog and spected and validated as well as those who do.
the cat. Resistance amongst voluntarily childless
women to pronatalist cultural discourses signi-
Drawing on certain cultural stereotypes fies the potential for their transformation. Yet
whilst resisting others such as those associated as Bordo (1993) argues in relation to body ide-
with motherhood exemplified how difficult it ologies, for example, for those who are fat or
can be to break away from cultural discourses old, and as exemplified in this study in relation
and how engrained they might be in women’s to voluntary childlessness, failure to conform
lives. In her analysis of women’s appearance or can have high personal cost. The trend for vol-
‘body ideology’ and dominant cultural forms untary childlessness signifies emergent, and at
Bordo (1993) cautions against oversimplifying times, radical constructions of ‘normal’ femi-
the notion that the discursive domain repre- nine identity, distinct and unshackled from
sents a straightforward site for liberation from motherhood. Through resistance to cultural
the effects of normalisation and control. She discourses, such as those of motherhood and
argues that to resist normalising discourses can childlessness, women’s individuality, diversity,
involve considerable personal risk: for exam- subjectivity and agency may increasingly come
ple, those associated with feminine appearance to be more fully acknowledged, validated and
contained within advertisements. She argues accommodated.
that in such texts, ‘resistance’ is exemplified by Finally, this article has established that a
strong, ‘rebellious’ young white women with fuller understanding of voluntary childless-
anorexic bodies; bodies that conform to cer- ness can contribute to a more in-depth under-
tain media driven stereotypes of feminine ap- standing of femininity and identity. In addi-
pearance, yet fail to represent the majority of tion, it can also contribute to a questioning and
women. Thus, such images convey a message re-interpreting of the past. For example, it may
of resistance, within sub-texts of conformity. be that there have always been women who
In this study, women who rejected mother- have avoided motherhood. These may have
hood offer resistance to the pronatalist cul- been largely hidden amongst those who be-
tural discourses, which they encounter. Their came nuns, perceived as the sacrificial bi-prod-
childlessness acts as a site of resistance in their uct of a religious calling; nannies whose occu-
 Discourses of Voluntary Childlessness 233

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