Choosing to be childfree

Datshiane Navanayam speaks to two women who research what happens to our thoughts, feelings and behaviours when we speak many languages. To what extent do we have a “mother tongue” – and what happens if we stop using it?Dr Aneta Pavlenko is a Ukrainian-American linguist who looks ...  Show more

Ella Al-Shamahi talks to women in Switzerland and the UK about how job sharing can boost a career and bring many benefits to both work and home life.Irenka Krone-Germann is Swiss and has written several books about job-sharing and part-time working. She co-founded the information ...  Show more

Whether it’s biological, circumstantial, financial, environmental, a result of trauma, or simply because you don’t want to, the reasons why people decide to be childfree are as diverse as the reasons why people decide to be parents. For many people, the decision to be childfre ...

Yvonne was on a bus on a trip to Europe when she had a realisation. There’s more to life than having kids, she thought – I could travel the world. She made that decision at twenty, and now she’s 64 she’s never doubted her choice. She tells Namulanta about her relief at missing ou ...  Show more

Ruby Warrington joins us to discuss the often overlooked experiences of women who do not have children - by choice or circumstance. How the deeply ingrained belief that womanhood is synonymous with motherhood can be a tool to suppress women's sexuality and autonomy.  The reason ...  Show more

A growing number of adults in the U.S. are choosing not to have children. Jenna Watling Neal, PhD, of Michigan State University, talks about her research that’s found 1 in 5 adults are child free, why people are choosing not to have kids, the stigma child-free adults face, whethe ...  Show more