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Fifty shades of freedom: Voluntary childlessness as women's ultimate liberation
University of Gothenburg, Department of Sociology and Work Science, Gothenburg, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5171-2783
2015 (English)In: Women's Studies: International Forum, ISSN 0277-5395, E-ISSN 1879-243X, Vol. 53, p. 182-191Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Freedom is an often mentioned motive for remaining childfree. However, there is a lack of systematicapproaches attempting to disentangle the situated meaning of freedom in voluntary childlesswomen's lives. This article draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 21 Swedishchildfree women in order to further research how they understand and define freedom. Theanalysis identifies two different discourses of freedom relevant for the construction of thechildfree position. The first discourse includes positive experiences of freedom aspects thatthe childfree women enjoyed in their everyday lives. This discourse also defines freedom aspart of a deep-rooted identity that also involves other life choices, besides rejecting mother-hood. The second discourse comprises negativeopinions about children as risk, motherhoodas time-consuming and parents as“trapped”. The article contextualizes these discourseswithin the contemporary Swedish welfare society.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2015. Vol. 53, p. 182-191
National Category
Gender Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-80138DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2014.10.017ISI: 000367121400024Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84949321177OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-80138DiVA, id: diva2:1395318
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2012-1159Available from: 2020-02-21 Created: 2020-02-21 Last updated: 2020-02-25Bibliographically approved

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Peterson, Helen

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