The Rush to Motherhood: Pronatalist Discourse and Women's Autonomy

Reconsidering Childfreedom: A Feminist Exploration of Discursive Identity Construction in Childfree LiveJournal Communities

“…Cultural discourses surrounding ''mother'' and ''women'' are inextricably linked (Hird, 2003;Hird & Abshoff, 2000), and women's individual identities are often undercut by pronatalist discourses (Meyers, 2001). Cultural discourses surrounding voluntarily childless women include derogation, compensation, and regret (Morell, 1994), as well as disbelief, disregard, and deviance (Gillespie, 2000).…”

Forbidden option or planned decision? Physically disabled women’s narratives on the choice of motherhood

“…On the one hand, motherhood is considered one part of a reasonable female life, but on the other hand, becoming a mother requires careful life planning and timing (Sevon 2005). Even though motherhood is nowadays regarded as a women's personal choice, the decision to become a mother is not as autonomous as it is generally thought to be (Meyers 2001). In the Nordic countries, in particular, parenthood is based on gender equality and on both parents' strong involvement and shared responsibility, where fathers are expected to participate in child-rearing and family life (Perälä-Littunen 2007) and have an influence on women's decision-making concerning potential pregnancy (Eerola 2015).…”

Childfreeness, parenthood and adulthood

“…Women are usually expected to become mothers since children are often seen as necessary to complete a woman's life, and therefore voluntarily childless women tend to be seen as unfulfilled (Morell 2000;Meyers 2001). Furthermore, voluntarily childless women are often depicted as deviant, selfish, immature and unfeminine (Bartlett 1994;Gillespie 2000).…”