In a world full of messages about the joys of motherhood, ticking biological clocks, pronatalist ideologies and socio-cultural imperatives for women to mother, what does the alternative look like? That is, what is the experience of women who choose, or find themselves without progeny, when they are deemed “other”, instead of being a “mother”? This anthology of interdisciplinary work links to sociology, anthropology, psychology, demography, religion, language, literature, popular media, medicine and child and family studies. Are women that choose to be childfree always narcissistic, self-obsessed, and lonely? Or can they be free, mobile, and successful? Do all women who choose to be childfree do it in the same way or have the same motivation? What is the role of age, partnership status, trauma or poverty in this decision? Using techniques such as literature review, ethnographic interviews, autoethnography, and textual analysis and reframing, these sixteen authors from around the globe unpack largely pronatalist, racist, sexist and heteronormative views and assumptions about childfree women.

Helene A. Cummins is a Full Professor of Sociology at Brescia University College (BUC), Western University in London, ON. She received the first Award of Excellence in teaching at BUC and was nominated on two occasions for distinguished teaching at Western University. She is a former elected Chair of the Department of Sociology, and former Associate Academic Dean at her university. She has published in The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Women’s Studies International Forum, Advancing Women in Leadership, Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, The Canadian Geographer, and Journal of Rural and Community Development, to name a few. She was elected Chair of The Status of Women Committee for OCUFA. In 2016 she won The Status of Women Award of Distinction which represents twenty-eight universities in Ontario, Canada. Her areas of expertise include gender and equity, sociology of the family, rural sociology, and ethics.

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Julie Anne Rodgers is Lecturer in French at Maynooth University. Her research (mainly in the field of French Studies) focuses on the production and reception of maternal counternarratives and incorporates the study of a wide range of mothering experiences that do not correspond to the normative, patriarchal script of motherhood. These include maternal ambivalence, postnatal and ongoing maternal depression, difficult pregnancies, and, of course, the choice to remain childfree. Julie has published widely on motherhood and mothering. Selected articles are as follows: mother-daughter relations in Francine Noel (Francofonia, 2009); the difficulty of exercising selfhood alongside motherhood in Ying Chen (International Journal of Canadian Studies, 2012); and voluntary childlessness in Lucie Joubert (Women: A Cultural Review, 2018). Julie has also published a chapter with Demeter Press on Lisa Baraitser and the ethics of maternal interruption in Mothering and Psychoanalysis (2014) edited by Petra Bueskens. In addition to her scholarship on motherhood and mothering, Julie is also mother to Harry, aged 4.

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Judith Dunkelberger Wouk has degrees in anthropology and law. After a career as a Canadian federal public servant she is now involved in political and spiritual activism. She has researched and taught reframing Less Known Women of the Bible including Miriam the Drummer, Jezebel, Teraphim, Balaam’s donkey, and Judith, as well as on “Paganism in Ottawa in the ‘90s”, “Fitting your Life into Judaism &/or fitting Judaism into your life”, (with Jonathan Wouk), “In Search of the Feminine Divine” (with Angelina Cacciato) “Women and Judaism” in “Varieties of Contemporary Judaism”, Totonicapan: A Community in Guatemala (1969); and Religion in Monserrat Ecuador (1968). Her publications include “Recalling Our Herstory: Miriam the Prophetess (Canadian Women Studies 2015), “Unaccompanied/Separated Minors and Refugee Protection in Canada: Filling Information Gaps” (Refuge: Canada’s Periodical on Refugees 2006); “Equal Pay” (ansul 1978); “Birth Control and Minors: The Legal Position” (Ansul 1978).

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