ABSTRACT
This chapter takes on the challenge of introducing the reader to the concept and practical reality of involuntary childlessness (i.e. childlessness not by choice)—an issue most have never even heard about. Beyond discussing the limitations of current definitions about the subject, it outlines the aims of the book: explaining the deafening silence that, even in the “age of communication,” surrounds around a quarter of the adult population of most Western countries; documenting the reality of living as a childless person in societies that are, effectively, designed around families; and reclaiming childlessness from the perspective of those who are affected by it. This latter step particularly involves raising awareness about the existential and human dimensions of childlessness, as well as the social and political implications of not having children, in the context of a public discourse that only ever tends to address these issues from a medical angle and within a personal or, at most, family-related perspective.
