Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness

Natalie Sappleton is Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Her research interests are in the intersections between social networks, gender segregation and gender stereotyping in the labour market. Research programmes she has been involved in include Women Audio Visual Engineers (WAVE), Women in North West Engineering and numerous investigations into sex discrimination at the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

• Introduction: Childlessness Through a Feminist Lens; Natalie SappletonPart One: Theoretical Perspectives On Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness  Chapter 1. From Deviant Choice to Feminist Issue: A Historical Content Analysis of Scholarship on Voluntary Childlessness (1920 To 2013); Ingrid Lynch, Tracy Morison, Catriona Ida Macleod, Magda Mijas, Ryan Du Toit, and Simi SeemanthiniChapter 2. What is it Like Being Involuntarily Childless? Searching for Ways of Understanding from a Psychological Perspective; Megumi FieldsendChapter 3. Wanting to Want: Constructing the Dissident Childless Self; Anna GotlibPart Two: Structural and Agential Underpinnings of Childlessness  Chapter 4. Capital in Pronatalist Fields: Exploring The Influence of Economic, Social, Cultural and Symbolic Capital on Childbearing Habitus; Alyssa MullinsChapter 5. Social Connectedness, Inclusion and Support: Experiences of Women Without Children in a Pronatalist Society; Melissa Graham, Beth Turnbull, Hayley Mckenzie and Ann TaketChapter 6. "Join the Club" Or "Don't have Kids?": Exploring Contradictory Experiences, Pressures and Encouragement to have Children in Pronatalist Social Fields; Alyssa MullinsPart Three: Intersectional Perspectives On Childlessness Chapter 7. Are Loneliness and Regret the Inevitable Outcomes of Ageing and Childlessness?; Jenny Mercer and Ros O'DriscollChapter 8. Age-Identity in Progress Narratives of Never-Married Childless Older Women; Kate De Medeiros and Robert L. RubinsteinPart Four: Lived Experiences of Childlessness Chapter 9. The Voluntary Childless Marriage; Laura CarrollChapter 10. Finding Mr Right; Helen PetersonChapter 11. Understanding the Employment Experiences of Women with no Children; Beth Turnbull, Melissa Graham and Ann TaketChapter 12. Gender Segregation, Stereotypes, Wellbeing and Childlessness: Evidence of the Links in Europe; Natalie Sappleton Part Five: National Perspectives On Childlessness Chapter 13. Childlessness in the Hungarian Context; Ivett Szalma and Judit TakácsChapter 14. Stigma and Childlessness in Historical and Contemporary Japan; Kimiko Tanaka and Deborah LowryChapter 15. The Childless Agenda in Germany; Nazli KazanogluPostscript: Moving Forward: Towards a Feminist Understanding of 'Otherhood'; Natalie Sappleton

Social scientists from a number of countries explore key principles of feminist enquiry into theoretical perspectives on voluntary and involuntary childlessness; structure, agency, and childlessness; intersectional perspectives; lived experiences; and national perspectives. Among their topics are from deviant choice to feminist issue: a historical analysis of scholarship on voluntary childlessness 1920-2013, whether loneliness and regret are the inevitable outcomes of ageing and childlessness, age identity and never-married childless older women, finding Mr. Right: childfree women's partner preferences, and stigma and childlessness in historical and contemporary Japan.