Women in Lesbian Relations

Abstract

When a lesbian couple conceives through donor insemination, the partners transform their relations to each other. In this article, I explore how women in lesbian relations depict their parental roles in relation to the notion of equality. Drawing on critical discursive psychology, I conducted and analyzed interviews with 96 Swedish lesbian parents. Findings show how the interviewees draw on three different interpretative repertoires when they talk about their parental roles. In one repertoire, parents describe themselves as being spontaneously equal in relation to the child. In a second repertoire, equality is depicted as a potential result of struggling, where some parents claim to have achieved equality, whereas others describe being frustrated about their unequal situation. Finally, in a third repertoire, inequality is depicted as a given starting point, drawing on a biologistic rhetoric. Although most parents present equality as idealized, most also refer to biology as a reality that sets the benchmark. Findings in the present study could be useful for clinicians working with lesbian couples; rather than assuming that a lesbian couple is more or less equal, it is important to consider the specific couple and their descriptions.

Mothers in same‐sex relationships—Striving for equal parenthood: A grounded theory study

“…Mothers in two-mother families aimed for a high level of equality in their relationship and parenting and also aimed high when it comes to sharing their parental leave equally. Similar results, where lesbian mothers idealized equal parenthood, are also described by Malmquist (2015). Equal parenting seemed to be easier to achieve within the family than in encounters with others.…”

“…As a consequence of this, equality among Swedish heterosexual parents is today more pronounced than among previous generations of parents, as parents now share parenting and parental leave more equally (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014). In same-sex couples, some women describe equal parental roles as arising spontaneously, while others describe having to struggle for equality, or having unequal roles (Malmquist, 2015). In a study with same-sex couples from USA, Downing and Goldberg (2011), highlighted that the mothers might both challenge and enact heteronormative constructions.…”

“Never Say Never?” Heterosexual, Bisexual, and Lesbian Women’s Accounts of Being Childfree

“…Similarly, some of the lesbian women in the current study accounted for their childfreedom as at least partially based on an innate lack of maternal urge (Clarke et al, 2018). The complexities of biological repertoires have also been identified in research with lesbian parents, in which it was reported that they reflected on their parental roles as non/birth mothers (Malmquist, 2015). Perhaps, reflecting the challenges of accounting for childfreedom, most participants in the current research primarily spoke of their childfree status as liminal, even when biology was invoked in the interview.…”

Um estudo sobre a parentalidade contemporânea e a rede de cuidados com a primeira infância

“…Devido à proximidade histórica do modelo da família nuclear, no entanto, por mais que os casais façam referência ao desejo de construir uma família igualitária, suas ações demonstram certa ambivalência. Nesse contexto, estudos sugerem que os casais devem buscar um modelo de equilíbrio entre trabalho e família, com foco na organização e na quantidade de tempo que dedicam a cada um desses eixos de investimento (Feijó, Junior, Nascimento & Nascimento, 2017); e afirmam a necessidade de modificação da legislação trabalhista de modo a permitir que os pais tenham maior flexibilidade de horário para que possam dedicar-se à família (Fiorin, Oliveira & Dias, 2014;Rehel, 2014;Malmquist, 2015). Outros estudos, no entanto, revelam que mesmo contando com pouco auxílio familiar ou profissional para cuidar dos filhos e com grande carga horária de trabalho, os casais mostram-se satisfeitos com seus empregos por terem a flexibilidade necessária para conciliar a carreira e a parentalidade (Fidelis, Falcke e Mosmann, 2017).…”

“…A revisão da literatura internacional não alterou a divisão das categorias temáticas que foram construídas a partir dos estudos nacionais, mas observamos que em alguns países as discussões já estão mais consolidadas acerca das transformações do exercício parental no contemporâneo. Por exemplo, enquanto os estudos brasileiros discutem os desafios enfrentados pelas mulheres para conciliar família e carreira, estudos internacionais (Rehel, 2014;Malmquist, 2015) avançam nessa discussão, refletindo e incluindo as condições e as implicações da licença parental nos diversos países -ora, no Brasil, a discrepância entre as licenças materna e paterna ainda marca diferenças significativas que interferem na parentalidade de homens e mulheres, enquanto no Canadá, por exemplo, é instituída a licença maternidade de 15 semanas remuneradas para a mulher e 35 semanas de licença parental divididas entre o casal. Na Suécia, a licença parental remunerada é de 32 semanas, sendo 30 dias intransferíveis para cada membro do casal e 180 dias transferíveis tanto para a mãe como para o pai.…”