Book Review: Women without Children; Nurturing Lives

By Twiga92 Former PW&F Contributor
Blogs: Caught Between Worlds, Twiga's Book Reviews, "Something About Me" Reading Challenge

"What is the meaning of childlessness in women's lives, and how do they construct lives challenging the expectation that all women are, or should be, mothers?"

For those who haven't read any childfree literature, then this book may be somewhat informative. It felt repetitive to me partly because I'd read it all before, but also because the author selected interview subjects who say the same things over and over, just from different perspectives.

Women without Children: Nurturing Lives by Yvonne Vissing gets a 3.5/5 star rating for me. Though the book had good information, it seemed rather bland and repetitious to me. She interviewed a number of women, some of whom were childless by choice, others not by choice.

There was a chapter on infertility, miscarriage and infant death. This would probably be a good book to promote discussion on the whole topic of women without children and on how being a mother is not what defines a woman.

"For women, childlessness has fundamental implications for their identity. Motherhood to them is a club that you cannot belong to unless you have a kid."

Chapter titles include:

1. Childlessness in America
2. The Pushes and Pulls of Childlessness
3. Impact of Body, Mind, and Family Interactions
4. Consequences of Partnerships
5. Lifestyle Choices
6. Infertility, Miscarriage, and Infant Death
7. Choosing to End Family Dysfunction
8. Processing Childlessness
9. Child Haves and Have-Nots
10. Nurturing Others
11. Childless Women Growing Older
12. Reflections on a Childless Life

Overall, I came away a negative feeling from this book. It focused on the down side of being childfree, portraying women who were infertile and thus regretful, and women who were concerned about getting older and what they should do with the things they leave behind.

The nurturing chapter gives one the impression that women who don't have children can still be nurturers in other ways. This is true. But just because I'm a woman doesn't mean that I'm also a nurturer. The two don't necessarily go hand in hand.

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