The price of choice : pressures faced by voluntarily childless married women in Singapore

• Main Author: Shamini De Mello
• Other Authors: Genaro
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62440
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study examines the various pressures faced by voluntarily childless married women in Singapore by drawing on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 10 married women in Singapore who have chosen to remain childless. Data analysis illustrates that these women face pressures in the form of persuasion whereby they were frequently questioned about their childless status and impelled to alter their decision. They also experienced pressure in the form of negative sanctions through: (1) the ascription of negative evaluations upon them; (2) social exclusion and (3) devaluation of their achievements. These pressures were imposed upon them by their family, friends, colleagues, healthcare professionals and religion. The findings reveal that the driving force of these pressures stem from Singapore society’s values and beliefs about womanhood being synonymous with motherhood. Therefore, this paper advocates for the disentanglement of motherhood from womanhood and a redefinition of the term so as to create a society in which women are able to make reproductive choices freely and be accepted for these choices.