1
Defying Nature? Contemporary Discourses around
Delayed Childbearing and Childlessness in Britain

• Roona Simpson
• Centre for Research on Families and Relationships
• University of Edinburgh
• Roona.Simpson_at_ed.ac.uk
• GeNet Seminar, London School of Economics,
• 31st May 2007

2

• Women want to have it all, but biology is
  unchanged deferring defies nature and risks
  heartbreak
• Bewley S, Davies M, Braude P. Which Career
  First?, British Medical Journal 331 (2005),17th
  September588-589
• http//bmj.bmjjournals.com/

3
Completed Family Size, Selected Birth Cohorts at
age 45 Source ONS Birth Statistics, Series FM1
33
4

• Economic Perspectives
• Rational Choice Theory
• Economic analyses of family
• (Becker 1991, Ermisch 1988)
• Risk Aversion Theory
• (Oppenheimer 1994 Hobson and Olah 2006 Lewis
  2006)

5

• Cultural Perspectives
• Post-Materialist Values Theory
• Second Demographic Transition/ Individualisation
  Theory
• (van der Kaa 1987, Lesthaeghe 1995, Beck 1992,
  Giddens 1992)
• Preference Theory
• (Hakim 2003)

6

• Gender Perspectives
• Gender Equity Theory
• (McDonald 2000)
• Changing Gender and Generational Relations
• (Irwin 2000, 2005 MacKinnon 1995)

7
Study on Contemporary Spinsterhood

• Sample characteristics 37 never-married and
  single (not in a cohabiting relationship for at
  least five years) heterosexual women, aged
  between 35 and 83. Included solo mothers. Range
  of socio-economic backgrounds.
• Methodological approach Life History
  interviews, Narrative ontology - interpreting
  these accounts as particular stories produced by
  participants to make sense of their lives and
  define who they are (Somers, 1994)

8

• When I was younger I always assumed that I
  would get married and have children it was
  just part of what would happen to me But
  then you get to the stage where you realise its
  just not going to happen, and if its not going
  to happen, thats it
• 
  Maureen, 53

9

• Ive never felt maternal
• I am very different from her (sister) because I
  dont have this need for children and she does,
  and that must be dreadful I dont have any
  of that luckily.
• Joan, 40

10

• It was bound up with all kinds of things to do
  with the fact that I had started working very,
  very long hours again you cant have a proper
  life like that Im not sure that
  promotion matters, to be honest. Im not sure
  that for me it is the be all and end all (pause).
  And do I want to be working at that rate for ever
  and ever? No I dont. I mean, I would have had
  to do something
• Brenda, 37

11

• A lot of guys I think have still got this
  mentality that theyre, you know, theyre looking
  for the whore in the bedroom their
  mother to look after them you know, theyre
  still kind of looking with the old-fashioned
  values, whereas girls now are saying well no,
  sorry mate, after I come in from my work the last
  thing Im going to do is go into the kitchen
• Louise, 36

12
Notions of choice, or preferences are far
more complex than rational choice theory allows.
Decision-making about childbearing an embedded,
ongoing process. Importance of considering
changing gendered subjectivities in the context
of changing gender relations, and the
implications of this for shifts in motivations,
desires and behaviours.Ontological assumptions
implicit to explanatory theories and underlying
social policies - implications of potential
mismatch affecting efficacy of latter.