“I am my own future” representations and experiences of childfree women

Abstract

This research sought to understand the reality of childfree women by exploring their representations and experiences in a society still marked by binary and traditional gender roles anchored in motherhood as a marker of adulthood and femininity. For this purpose, a qualitative study was held in which semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with eight women, aged between 23 and 45, born and resident in Portugal. The thematic analysis showed that despite the pressures of motherhood they face daily and the social stigma they are subjected to by pronatalist expectations, childfree women successfully construct their identity by designing different paths for their self-fulfilment. In addition, the existence of online childfree communities has shown to be able to compensate for the lack of access throughout their life cycle to female role models who have not had nor wanted children.