Childless, childfree or lunàdigas? On the choice of non-reproduction as subversion of the feminine

Abstract

Declining birth rates have been of interest in the psychological and social research, which has examined at length the causes that hinder reproductive behaviors. Feminist scholars have shifted the focus to women’s voluntary choice of non-reproduction, which has long been ignored by research. This paper, by analyzing pronatalist ideologies and the meaning of non-reproductive choices, highlights the importance traditionally attributed to motherhood for female identity and the difficulties that women who decide not to have children have to face. The article, moreover, starting from the analysis of discourses of women who took part in the project "Lunàdigas, or concerning childfree women", shows the complexity of women’s choices, thus offering insights into the meaning that the choices of non-reproduction assume for the subversion of the ideologies on gender and motherhood.