Without Children, Peggy ODonnell Heffington
Without Children, Peggy ODonnell Heffington
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Without Children
The Long History of Not Being a Mother

Author: Peggy O'Donnell Heffington

Narrator: Marguerite Gavin

Unabridged: 8 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/18/2023

Synopsis

A historian of gender explores the complicated relationship between womanhood and motherhood In an era of falling births, it’s often said that millennials invented the idea of not having kids. But history is full of women without children: some who chose childless lives, others who wanted children but never had them, and still others—the vast majority, then and now—who fell somewhere in between. Modern women considering how and if children fit into their lives are products of their political, ecological, and cultural moment. But history also tells them that they are not alone.Drawing on deep research and her own experience as a woman without children, historian Peggy O’Donnell shows that many of the reasons women are not having children today are ones they share with women in the past: a lack of support, their jobs or finances, environmental concerns, infertility, and the desire to live different kinds of lives.Understanding this history—how normal it has always been to not have children and how hard society has worked to make it seem abnormal—is key, she writes, to rebuilding kinship between mothers and non-mothers and to building a better world for us all.

About Peggy O'Donnell Heffington

Peggy O’Donnell Heffington is an instructional professor of history at the University of Chicago and teaches on subjects ranging from feminism to human rights. Her writing can be found in Jezebel, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Boston Globe, and elsewhere. She received her PhD in history from the University of California, Berkeley.

About Marguerite Gavin

Marguerite Gavin is a seasoned theater veteran, a five-time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award, and the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones and Publishers Weekly awards. She has been an actor, director, and audiobook narrator for her entire professional career. With over four hundred titles to her credit, her narration spans nearly every genre, from nonfiction to mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance, and children’s fiction. AudioFile magazine says, “Marguerite Gavin…has a sonorous voice, rich and full of emotion.”

Reviews

Goodreads review by Alexandra on May 09, 2023

I think I'm just not the target audience of this. I went in expecting it to be more about how being childfree is ok (by choice or otherwise) and the good things about it. Instead it felt more like a lament of being childless and trying to let those who are childless (not by choice) less alone while......more

Goodreads review by William2 on December 25, 2024

Compelling. Declining birth rates it turns out are not so much about the choices women make as it is about the socioeconomic context in which those decisions are made. The author writes about how before the American Revolution there was a greater sense of community that made it possible for children......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on December 06, 2024

I get asked a lot less than I used to be as to my marital, relationship, and motherhood status. Reading this felt like someone finally understood me. Highly informative too, based in researched history and science. The book was really good, and I plan to reread it. I agree it's an unfair burden to ex......more

Goodreads review by Katie on September 05, 2023

The reviews here on this book frustrate the hell out of me. Yes, childfree by choice folks - this book isn’t just about the glories of being childfree. It seems as if everyone is irritated the book wasn’t about them without recognizing the immense amount of detailed research, the incredible writing......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on May 22, 2023

3.5/5 This feels more like a book for those wanting to be a mother but cannot for some reason. I was excepting a book about women choosing to not have children and the history behind all the women choosing that. Rather I got a book about how we should parent everyone's children and how child free by......more

Quotes

“Desire, doubt, destiny—there are many reasons for the shape of a family. With clarity and compassion, O’Donnell Heffington offers a timely, refreshingly openhearted study of the choices women make and the cards they’re dealt.” Ada Calhoun, author of Why We Can’t Sleep

“At once bracing and beautiful, Without Children is a timely meditation on all of the reasons why women increasingly can’t, don’t, or won’t have children—and the feminist solidarity we can all build together, whether we have children or not. I was intrigued and carried along for the book’s length by O’Donnell Heffington’s lyricism, thoughtfulness, humor, and panache.” Kate Manne, author of Entitled

“Without Children is the rich, nuanced history of women without children that has been missing from the discourse. O’Donnell Heffington skillfully avoids the trap of pitting women without children against mothers, while showing how the choice to have children has historically been dictated by—you guessed it!—the patriarchy. A necessary book, whatever your parental status is.” Doree Shafrir, author of Thanks for Waiting

“A woman with children is a mother. A woman without children has no name. Without Children, written with warmth and insight and layered with deeply personal stories, tells us this woman in fact has many names, faces, and identities—all worth knowing.” Lara Bazelon, author of Ambitious Like a Mother

“I devoured this book. O’Donnell Heffington is the rare serious historian who writes with verve and humor, bringing to life the big, hard questions of history that illuminate the present. Without Children is a signal contribution to the historical field and a vivid series of stories that are alternately shocking, funny, and inspiring.” Kathleen Belew, author of Bring the War Home

“Historian Heffington’s incisive debut examines how society demonizes women without children while increasingly failing to provide the supports that make it possible to raise kids sustainably…A cogent and well-supported polemic.”  Publishers Weekly

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