Discount Without Child: Challenging the Stigma of Childlessness

Without Child: Challenging the Stigma of Childlessness

Without Child: Challenging the Stigma of Childlessness In a society in which most women grow up thinking they will become mothers -- and in which many women go to great lengths to make that desire a reality -- the choice not to have a child is often met with incredulity and scorn. But as the author of this thoughtful and meticulously researched examination of childlessness points out, childless women are part of an ancient and respectable cultural tradition that includes biblical matriarchs, celibate saints, and nineteenth-century social reformers. Revealing the story of her own decision not to have children, Laurie Lisle draws from history, literature, religion and sociology to challenge the stigma attached to the condition of childlessness -- and to offer encouragement and understanding to those women who have made this difficult decision themselves.Beginning with the inner journey a woman faces before finally deciding or realizing she will not bear children, Without Child explores the myth of the childless woman's rejection of the maternal instinct. It also explores the childless woman's relationship to mothers and mothering, to her femininity, to men, to achievement, to her body, and to old age. Wide-ranging yet intimate, philosophical yet clear-sighted, this important book does what no other has done before -- present childlessness in a multifaceted and positive light.

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Model :: 30523174