At the same time, the relational ethic of seemed to underpin ‘co-independence’ women’s reproductive decision making, and relationships with children, in (same-sex) relationships. There was less pressure or expectation to see a partner’s children as part of family. Debbie was in a relationship with a woman who had children (the woman was their older than she was), one of the children lived with them for a year, but there was no pressure or expectation for her to develop a relationship with the child or see this child as part of her family. Likewise, Louise’s current partner had adult children and she was reluctant (and did not experience pressure) to get involved: you take on some responsibility for a child at any “if point… that’s potentially open ended for the rest of your life.” Her partner also spent regular time with a friend’s child and very much back-up on that one.” “I’m Furthermore, although women saw themselves as childfree’ their ‘essentially lives were not (generally) free of relationships with children. They engaged in social reproduction (Blackstone, 2014; Blackstone & Greenleaf, 2015) through relationships with nieces and nephews and friends’ children and through working with children. When the women reflected on the absence of their children from their familial ‘own’ and social networks and looked to the future, they spoke of the importance of having lots of (younger and older) friends and of sharing in other people’s children. They also discussed for the absence of traditional support networks are we going to do to ‘compensating’ – “what compensate for that? Well there are other ways of living” (Jane) by creating their own – networks, or families of choice. They also imagined different ways of living - “reimagining how we can live” (Rosa Marvin) in terms of communities for older adults, and ways of – doing family and caring beyond the nuclear family. General discussion and conclusions It is from the complex and often contradictory ways our participants made sense of the childfreedom that even for a group for whom childlessness is arguably still expected
At the same time, the relational ethic of ‘co-independence’ seemed to underpin women’s reproductive decision making, and relationships with children, in (same-sex) relationships. There was less pressure or expectation to see a partner’s children as part of their family. Debbie was in a relationship with a woman who had children (the woman was older than she was), one of the children lived with them for a year, but there was no pressure or expectation for her to develop a relationship with the child or see this child as part of her family. Likewise, Louise’s current partner had adult children and she was reluctant (and did not experience pressure) to get involved: “if you take on some responsibility for a child at any point… that’s potentially open ended for the rest of your life.” Her partner also spent regular time with a friend’s child and “I’m very much back-up on that one.” Furthermore, although women saw themselves as ‘essentially childfree’ their lives were not (generally) free of relationships with children. They engaged in social reproduction (Blackstone, 2014; Blackstone & Greenleaf, 2015) through relationships with nieces and nephews and friends’ children and through working with children. When the women reflected on the absence of their ‘own’ children from their familial and social networks and looked to the future, they spoke of the importance of having lots of (younger and older) friends and of sharing in other people’s children. They also discussed ‘compensating’ for the absence of traditional support networks – “what are we going to do to compensate for that? Well there are other ways of living” (Jane) – by creating their own networks, or families of choice. They also imagined different ways of living - “reimagining how we can live” (Rosa Marvin) – in terms of communities for older adults, and ways of doing family and caring beyond the nuclear family. General discussion and conclusions It is from the complex and often contradictory ways our participants made sense of the childfreedom that even for a group for whom childlessness is arguably still expected
Childfree%20lesbians%20Clarke%20et%20al%20UWE%20Repository%20Version.docx