Remaking Our Identities: Couples’ Experiences of Voluntary Childlessness
Abstract
Previous qualitative research findings have discussed motivations, decision-making, stigma, and resistance to pronatalism among voluntarily childless (VC) men and women. The current study placed such elements of the lifeworlds of VC individuals and dyads within the context of a life story of (re)making of the VC identity. Twelve life history and semistructured interviews with six VC men and women in three heterosexual couples in Canada were analyzed using thematic analysis. The VC choice was expressed as a decision to accept one’s essential voluntary childlessness. The construction of the VC participants’ bodies through their stories entailed episodes of conflict and resistance central to gendered experiences. We propose that this pattern of themes, in a pronatalist sociocultural context, points to a remaking of the figure of an extraordinary person from childhood, through to their current partnership, and into the future. These findings have implications for practitioners working with VC couples as they construct their identities, partnerships, reproductive decisions, life trajectories, and life projects.
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Article first published online: December 8, 2016
Issue published: January 2017
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Published online: December 8, 2016
Issue published: January 2017
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