Orientations towards motherhood and childlessness, and social pressures to conform

Abstract

The research explores women’s attitudes towards and motivation to remain childless or childfree. In the mid 1980s, most research including much feminist literature assumed that all women desired children. And yet there was a growing paradox in the UK: British culture and society was largely ‘pronatalist’ and, while some ‘antinatalist’ rhetoric was present, it was directed at lower income groups. Yet it was among middle income women that parenthood was being delayed to the point where some demographers acknowledged that it could result in permanent childlessness. The literature review included the biological, sociological, gender studies, and psychological literature (largely American or Canadian; few relevant British studies were found); pronatalist and antinatalist ideologies; and demographic trends. The empirical research focused on women teachers in the UK. A collaboration was developed with the Inner London Teachers’ Association, which was willing to provide access to their list of teachers and fund a questionnaire survey, due to its interest in learning about early infertility. The research included a questionnaire on attitudes to childlessness administered to 1,000 London based teachers, followed up by 19 in-depth interviews.