Without child : challenging the stigma of childlessness / Laurie Lisle
- Bib ID:
- 1163843
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Lisle, Laurie
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Description:
-
- New York : Ballantine Books, 1996
- xiv, 273 p. ; 22 cm.
- ISBN:
- 0345373278
- Summary:
-
Without Child brings scope and depth to a subject that has long been misunderstood. Weaving rich materials from history, literature, religion, and sociology with Laurie Lisle's own and other personal stories, this groundbreaking book does personal stories, this groundbreaking book does what no other has done before - presents childlessness in a multifaceted and positive light. Most women grow up thinking they will become mothers. And many do follow that path. But for those women who are willingly or unwillingly without children, childlessness is a way of life that many of them must constantly defend. Without Child explores the facts and fallacies behind childlessness, what it means for women and society, and reminds us of how women can and do embrace this choice.
Lisle contends that childless women are part of an ancient and respectable cultural tradition that includes biblical matriarchs, celibate saints, and nineteenth-century social reformers. However, like other aspects of women's history, this tradition has been forgotten and, in the process, maligned. Without Child brings childless women out of obscurity and places them back in women's history. Without Child also challenges the stigma of childlessness by offering childless women the life-affirming story of themselves.
- Full contents:
-
- 1. Finding the Words, Discovering my Way
- 2. Examining the Choice, Why it Arises
- 3. Searching History, Remembering our Maiden Aunts
- 4. Understanding our Mothers, Enlarging Motherhood
- 5. Dreaming about a Child, Loving Childlikeness
- 6. Living with Men, Improvising the Way
- 7. Recognizing Our Womanhood, Redefining Femininity
- 8. Possessing Ourselves, Doing Our Work
- 9. Looking Ahead, Celebrating Our Lives.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-265) and index.
- Subject:
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 1996
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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