Dominant discourses of womanhood and femininity equate woman and mother synonymously, implying that motherhood is a woman's destiny. Childfree women need to create identities divergent of these dominant discourses. Traditional and some feminist psychological theories of women's identity development are based on women's biology and their capacity to reproduce, either implicitly or explicitly. Women who choose to be childfree fall outside of these theoretical models and illuminate the necessity to revise or expand our theoretical understanding of women's identity development. In this qualitative inquiry, six voluntary childfree women were interviewed about their experience of being and becoming women. They shared their experiences of self discovery, living authentically, creating identities, and how being childflee impacts their sense of belonging to the womanhood.

Thesis (M. A.(Social Work)) --University of Limpopo, 2018 / Involuntary childlessness and infertility affects women from various cultural and religious backgrounds. Childless women suffer from social and psychological ailments because of their circumstances. Previous research reveals that women who suffer from infertility and childlessness experience social exclusion and ridicule from their women folk who have children. In South Africa reproduction is a human right and everyone is allowed to make decisions on whether or not they should have children. Surrogacy as an assisted reproductive technique is allowed and governed through the Children’s Act 38 of 2005. However, the knowledge of childless women on surrogacy, their belief system and willingness to take up surrogacy as a way to have children is unknown to the researcher. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of childless women on surrogacy as an assisted reproductive technique. The study was exploratory and qualitative in nature. The participants were identified through purposive and snowball sampling. Data was collected until saturation point and seven participants were interviewed. Unstructured, face to face interviews were conducted. An audio recorder was utilised during the interviews. Thematic analysis was employed in data analysis and trustworthiness was used to establish the credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability of the study. Most women in this study mentioned that they had heard and were aware of surrogacy but they were not well-informed about the relevant legislation. Women in this study were willing to take up surrogacy as an option to have their own children.

Neste trabalho nos debruçamos sobre um fenômeno emergente no Brasil e no mundo: os casais que não desejam ter filhos. Nosso objetivo foi discutir seus discursos a respeito deste tema problematizando o imperativo social que lhes ordena que tenham filhos. A dissertação se constitui por dois artigos. No primeiro, teórico, procuramos, através de um percurso histórico bibliográfico, investigar o significado atribuído ao ter filhos do século XVI até os dias atuais. Constatamos que ao longo dos séculos os discursos que se dirigiram à família foram modificados, gerando normas a serem seguidas com o intuito de trazer, prioritariamente, retorno financeiro para o Estado. Apesar disso, fica claro que movimentos de resistência sempre caminharam lado a lado com tais normatizações, partindo dessas normas no sentido de problematizá-las. O segundo artigo foi consequência de um estudo empírico com casais que não tinham filhos e não pretendiam tê-los. Os resultados apontaram casais que travam uma batalha constante com o discurso normatizador. Concluímos que é possível que os casais que não desejam ter filhos façam parte de um movimento de resistência- mas, ao mesmo tempo, se constituam em relação a ele- estando dentro e fora, à margem sim, mas sendo essa margem aquilo que os delimita, possibilitando o surgimento do novo a partir da diferença e da repetição / In this study we will analyze an emerging phenomenon in Brazil and in the world, the couples who do not wish to have children. Our objective was to discuss their discourse about this theme having in mind the social imperative that orders them to have children. The dissertation constitutes itself by two articles: In the first, which is theoretical, we search, through a historical bibliographic pathway, to investigate the meaning of having children from the 16th century until our actual days. We found that within the centuries the speeches that were conducted to the family were transformed creating rules that had to be obeyed with the intention of giving, primarily, financial profit for the state. Nevertheless, it is clear that resistance movements always walked side by side with those rules having as objective to surpass them. The second article was a consequence from an empirical study with couples that did not haven children and also did not pretend to have. The results pointed out that these couples are in a constant struggle against the ruling speech. We concluded that it is possible that the couples who do not wish to have children become a part of the resistance movement, but, at the same time, it may constitute in relation to them, if they are inside and outside, a margin, but this margin is what delimits them and, in the difference and repletion enables the emergence of the new

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:08:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_marilia_rique.pdf: 881018 bytes, checksum: a56ecd777d5de96a6465d85af01d9c9a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-22 / In this study we will analyze an emerging phenomenon in Brazil and in the world, the couples who do not wish to have children. Our objective was to discuss their discourse about this theme having in mind the social imperative that orders them to have children. The dissertation constitutes itself by two articles: In the first, which is theoretical, we search, through a historical bibliographic pathway, to investigate the meaning of having children from the 16th century until our actual days. We found that within the centuries the speeches that were conducted to the family were transformed creating rules that had to be obeyed with the intention of giving, primarily, financial profit for the state. Nevertheless, it is clear that resistance movements always walked side by side with those rules having as objective to surpass them. The second article was a consequence from an empirical study with couples that did not haven children and also did not pretend to have. The results pointed out that these couples are in a constant struggle against the ruling speech. We concluded that it is possible that the couples who do not wish to have children become a part of the resistance movement, but, at the same time, it may constitute in relation to them, if they are inside and outside, a margin, but this margin is what delimits them and, in the difference and repletion enables the emergence of the new / Neste trabalho nos debruçamos sobre um fenômeno emergente no Brasil e no mundo: os casais que não desejam ter filhos. Nosso objetivo foi discutir seus discursos a respeito deste tema problematizando o imperativo social que lhes ordena que tenham filhos. A dissertação se constitui por dois artigos. No primeiro, teórico, procuramos, através de um percurso histórico bibliográfico, investigar o significado atribuído ao ter filhos do século XVI até os dias atuais. Constatamos que ao longo dos séculos os discursos que se dirigiram à família foram modificados, gerando normas a serem seguidas com o intuito de trazer, prioritariamente, retorno financeiro para o Estado. Apesar disso, fica claro que movimentos de resistência sempre caminharam lado a lado com tais normatizações, partindo dessas normas no sentido de problematizá-las. O segundo artigo foi consequência de um estudo empírico com casais que não tinham filhos e não pretendiam tê-los. Os resultados apontaram casais que travam uma batalha constante com o discurso normatizador. Concluímos que é possível que os casais que não desejam ter filhos façam parte de um movimento de resistência- mas, ao mesmo tempo, se constituam em relação a ele- estando dentro e fora, à margem sim, mas sendo essa margem aquilo que os delimita, possibilitando o surgimento do novo a partir da diferença e da repetição