Without Child: Challenging the Stigma of Childlessness

الغلاف الأمامي
Psychology Press, 1999 - 273 من الصفحات
In a society in which most women grow up thinking they will become mothers-and in which many women go to great lengths to make that desire a reality -- not having a child is often met with incredulity and scorn. But as the author of this thoughtful and meticulously researched examination of childlessness points out, childless women are part of an ancient and respectable cultural tradition that includes biblical matriarchs, celibate saints, and nineteenth-century social reformers. Revealing the story of her own decision not to have children, Laurie Lisle draws from history, literature, religion and sociology to challenge the stigma attached to the condition of childlessness-and to offer encouragement and support to those women who have made the difficult decision themselves. Beginning with the difficult inner journey a woman faces before finally deciding or realizing she will not bear children,Without Childexplores the myth of the childless woman's rejection of the maternal instinct. It alsoexplores the childless woman's relationship to mothers and mothering, to her femininity, to men, to achievement, to her body, and to old age. Wide-ranging yet intimate, philosophical, yet clear-sighted, this important book does what no other has done before-presents childlessness in a multifaceted and positive light.
 

المحتوى

FINDING THE WORDS DISCOVERING MY WAY
3
EXAMINING THE CHOICE WHY IT ARISES
33
SEARCHING HISTORY REMEMBERING
59
UNDERSTANDING OUR MOTHERS ENLARGING
86
DREAMING ABOUT A CHILD LOVING CHILDLIKENESS
115
LIVING WITH MEN IMPROVISING THE WAY
140
RECOGNIZING OUR WOMANHOOD
167
POSSESSING OURSELVES DOING OUR WORK
195
LOOKING AHEAD CELEBRATING OUR LIVES
223
حقوق النشر

طبعات أخرى - عرض جميع المقتطفات

عبارات ومصطلحات مألوفة

نبذة عن المؤلف (1999)

Laurie Lisle is the author of Portrait of an Artist(1980), the bestselling biography of Georgia O'Keeffe, and Louise Nevelson: A Passionate Life (1990). She lives in Connecticut and Westchester County, New York.

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