March 2022

Negotiating Non-Motherhood: Voluntary, Involuntary, and Circumstantial Childlessness

This thematic residence focuses on the experiences, representations, and perceptions of women who do not have children against the backdrop of traditional gender norms, pronatalist policies and patriarchal structures. While involuntary and voluntary childlessness have typically been treated separately and studied within different disciplines in previous scholarship, we explore non-motherhood beyond the involuntary/voluntary divide and consider the experiences of women who have chosen not to have children; of those who did not have children due to other life choices and/or through circumstance; and those who could not have children. We bring together a range of perspectives from different national contexts and from different disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, gender studies, and literary and cultural studies to explore non-motherhood. The project we are working on will focus on how these women’s life positions are negotiated, felt, represented, and received.