ABSTRACT
Prior to the 1980s, few women identified as voluntarily childless. Women and mothers had always been synonymous, but the rise of birth control, a new wave of feminism, and shifting understandings of gender identity have prompted a growing group of childfree women in Western society. To better understand the status of voluntarily childless women, historical precedents and new feminist theory is being studied. Some suggest that these women must be a new gender identity all to their own; however, room must be made in current definitions of womanhood and motherhood as sex and gender continue to be deconstructed.
