LOOKING BACK

Prior to the 20th Century, the association of "womanhood" with "motherhood" was seldom questioned. But then, as now, there were women who would never marry and never bear children. For the creative writer, childlessness is a state of mind, a state to be explored as we'd explore any other situation. The difference is that, in the late 19th Century, writers could no better conceive of a woman leaving husband and family as she trotted happily off than they could imagine a childless woman living without regrets. While they were able to clearly depict the lives of childless women, they were unable to transform their circumstances into happy lives. To see the truth of this, one need only read Kate Chopin's "Regret" or "Anne," by Rebecca Harding Davis.

Many of these important public domain texts are available on the Internet, so wherever possible I've simply inserted the links here. But a few important stories (such as "Mammy" by Adeline F. Ries and "Aunt Lindy" by Victoria Earle Matthews—tales of slavery that take their rightful place beside more recent novels by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker) couldn't be found online, so I've included them as part of this site.

Kate Chopin: Regret
Rebecca Harding Davis: Anne
Mary Wilkins Freeman: A Mistaken Charity
Charlotte Perkins Gillman: The Widow's Might
Victoria Earle Matthews: Aunt Lindy
Adeline F. Ries: Mammy
Edith Wharton: The Mission of Jane

In the News

Continually, there are articles on Childlessness and the choice of the Childfree lifestyle in the news. This page will be periodically updated to include links to some of the more interesting articles, and remain active as long as the sites are active.

The State Of Our Unions