Voluntarily Childfree: Identity and Kinship in the United States discusses what it means to make a life worth living without traditional parenthood. Themes include authenticity and autonomy, partnership and support, fulfillment of the need to nurture, freedom of choice, and a desire to leave the world a better place than we found it. Despite the stigmas of selfishness and solitude, the voices in Voluntarily Childfree speak poignantly of their commitment to a different type of family that includes romantic partners, friends, pets, and future generations through mentorship and leadership opportunities. At its core, the human desire to connect and be heard remains, regardless of the decision to reproduce or not. This book is recommended for students and scholars of anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and psychology.

While interest in the drivers, consequences, nature and manifestations of voluntary and involuntary childlessness increases, knowledge progress is hampered by poor linkages across disjointed research fields. The book brings together theoretical insights and empirical investigations into the phenomenon, united within a feminist conceptual framework.

While interest in the drivers, consequences, nature and manifestations of voluntary and involuntary childlessness increases, knowledge progress is hampered by poor linkages across disjointed research fields. The book brings together theoretical insights and empirical investigations into the phenomenon, united within a feminist conceptual framework.

From Dr. Amy Blackstone, childfree woman, co-creator of the blog we're {not} having a baby, and nationally recognized expert on the childfree choice, comes a definitive investigation into the history and current growing movement of adults choosing to forgo parenthood: what it means for our society, economy, environment, perceived gender roles, and legacies, and how understanding and supporting all types of families can lead to positive outcomes for parents, non-parents, and children alike. As a childfree woman, Dr. Amy Blackstone is no stranger to a wide range of negative responses when she informs people she doesn't have--nor does she want--kids: confused looks, patronizing quips, thinly veiled pity, even outright scorn and condemnation. But she is not alone in opting out when it comes to children. More people than ever are choosing to forgo parenthood, and openly discussing a choice that's still often perceived as taboo. Yet this choice, and its effects personally and culturally, are still often misunderstood. Amy Blackstone, a professor of sociology, has been studying the childfree choice since 2008, a choice she and her husband had already confidently and happily made. Using her own and others' research as well as her personal experience, Blackstone delves into the childfree movement from its conception to today, exploring gender, race, sexual orientation, politics, environmentalism, and feminism, as she strips away the misconceptions surrounding non-parents and reveals the still radical notion that support of the childfree can lead to better lives and societies for all.

Fall in love. Get married. Have children. For most couples, marriage and children go hand in hand. And yet, the number of people choosing childlessness is on the rise. These are the childless by choice-people who have actively decided not to have children—rather than the childless by circumstance. In Two Is Enough, Laura S. Scott explores the assumptions surrounding childrearing, and explores the reasons many people are choosing to forgo this experience. Scott, founder of the Childless by Choice Project, examines the personal stories of people who have faced this decision and explores the growing trend of childlessness. Scott’s expert knowledge and analysis offer a picture of the childless by choice-who they are, why they’ve chosen to remain childless, and how they’ve had these conversations with loved ones. Honest and unapologetic, Two Is Enough recognizes the challenges of being childless in today’s society and offers suggestions on how that same society can change to make room for the childless and the childfree.

This book examines the relatively new social and medical phenomenon of women in the developed countries of the world choosing to remain childfree and electing for sterilization rather than continuing with other forms of contraception. Twenty-three voluntarily childfree, sterilized women, aged 22 to 51 years, tell their stories, revealing the struggles they faced in being women without children in a society which expects women to be mothers. They describe the many barriers encountered on the way to being sterilized, including prejudice from those around them as well as hostility and refusal from the medical profession. The women recall how their reasons and decisions were ignored or pathologized by doctors who held unquestioned assumptions about how women should be. Feminist and sociological perspectives are employed to highlight that voluntarily childfree women are perceived as abnormal, not "real" women, and are often the target of negative and critical comment.

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.