DENYING MOTHERHOOD: EXPERIENCE OF CHILDFREE WOMEN IN KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

Childfree people often underrepresented in the official governmental statistics and censuses, and thus they become “invisible” members of our society. It is essential to study the experiences of childfree people to better understand the reasons for becoming childfree, what challenges they face and how they cope with negative attitued and stereotypes. Especially, it is vital to study childfree women as it is believed that motherhood is essential part of feminin identity. Consequently, this paper is comprised of qualitative research methods and secondary data research. Overall 5 semi-structured interviews were conducted with childfree women from Kazakhstan. It was identified that age, birth order and marriage status play important roles not only in developing reasons to become childfree, but also how they are perceived by other people and how they cope with the negative questions and attitudes. Additionally, challenges such as negative social attitudes and limitations of regulations regarding the sterilization were found. Moreover, interviewees believed that motherhood is too responsible and that there is choice in front of women to have a career or a family. It was investigated that, childfree women do not feel stigmatized, because their whole identity is not based solely on being childree. They do not allow others’ negative opinions and stereotypes to have an effect on their decision and self-perception. This paper is based on the theoretical frameworks such as modernization theory, gender equity theory by Peter Macdonald, a stalled gender revolution, the theory of Gary Becker, the concept of intensive motherhood, and “doing gender”.