Simmonds Screech, A. (2025). Do you have children – and what to say if you don’t? How do individuals who are involuntarily childless experience social discourse surrounding normative family life? [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Alef Trust & Liverpool John Moores University.
Meaning in life is often constructed through social discourse, with language shaping our understanding of norms, values, and power structures within cultural systems. This discursive framing influences how coherence is found in relationships and everyday interactions. For involuntarily childless women, the experience of dominant narratives, especially those positioning motherhood as central to feminine identity, can be excluding and marginalising. Although research into involuntary childlessness has expanded in recent years, the lived experiences of these women’s daily conversations with friends, family, and colleagues remain underrepresented. Fourteen involuntarily childless women were interviewed for the current transcendental phenomenological study to explore the following research question: How do individuals who are involuntarily childless experience social discourse surrounding normative family life? Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis, which revealed deeply personal and often painful encounters, with social conversations that were often marked by assumptions, judgements, and invasive questions. However, participants also shared powerful stories of transcending trauma to reclaim autonomy and agency, through purposeful contribution and meaningful relationships, regardless of parental status. The findings suggest that for some involuntarily childless women, meaning can be found by actively challenging dominant cultural narratives and refusing to remain silent.
