Donath Orna, Berkovitch Nitza, Segal-Engelchin Dorit
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel.
Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel.
Front Psychol. 2022 Apr 7;13:848384. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.848384. eCollection 2022.
This study focuses on women who define themselves as being undecided about becoming mothers. It addresses the question of how these women navigate their lives between two main conflicting cultural directives and perceptions: pronatalism and familism entwined in perception of linear time on one hand; and individualism and its counterpart, the notion of flexible liquid society, on the other. The research is based on group meetings designated for these women, which were facilitated by the first author. Ten women participated in the study-of whom, most were heterosexual, half were single, and half were partnered. Data were collected using (1) questionnaires completed during individual interviews that preceded the group encounter; (2) transcripts of the discussions held during the ten group sessions; and (3) questions regarding the status of the women's doubts about motherhood asked 4 years after participating in the group. Our findings expand the existing typology of women's reproductive decision-making, and demonstrate how categories that are commonly perceived as binary intersect when one challenges the rigid classifications of "active decisions" and "passive decisions"; "motherhood" and "non-motherhood," and "want to be a mother" and "do not want to be a mother." The findings also suggest that after becoming mothers, women can change their maternal status from "non-mother" to "mother," yet still continue to view themselves as indecisive regarding motherhood. Based on our findings, we will argue that while indecisiveness about motherhood derives from individualized neoliberal rhetoric, it simultaneously undermines that same rhetoric and contradicts the injunction to "know, to decide, to strive." It opposes the expectation in post-feminist discourse, that women will make choices about their bodies and exert them, while also opposing the pronatalist rhetoric, and the temporal linear discourse positing that women should "move forward" toward motherhood along with the ticking of the "biological clock." Whereas some women sought to resolve their indecisiveness, other women found that the indecisiveness leaves all options open in a manner that expands their boundaries of autonomy in a society that seeks to limit it.
本研究聚焦于那些认为自己在是否成为母亲的问题上犹豫不决的女性。它探讨了这些女性如何在两种主要相互冲突的文化指令和观念之间驾驭自己的生活：一方面是与线性时间观念交织在一起的生育主义和家庭主义；另一方面是个人主义及其对应物——灵活多变的社会观念。该研究基于为这些女性组织的小组会议，由第一作者主持。十名女性参与了这项研究，其中大多数是异性恋，一半单身，一半有伴侣。数据收集方式如下：（1）在小组会面之前的个人访谈中填写的问卷；（2）十次小组会议期间讨论的文字记录；（3）在参与小组四年后询问的关于女性对母亲身份疑虑状况的问题。我们的研究结果扩展了现有的女性生殖决策类型，并展示了在挑战“主动决策”和“被动决策”、“母亲身份”和“非母亲身份”以及“想成为母亲”和“不想成为母亲”这些僵化分类时，通常被视为二元对立的类别是如何相互交叉的。研究结果还表明，成为母亲后，女性可以将其母亲身份从“非母亲”转变为“母亲”，但仍继续认为自己在母亲身份问题上犹豫不决。基于我们的研究结果，我们将论证，虽然对母亲身份的犹豫不决源于个体化的新自由主义言辞，但它同时也削弱了这种言辞，并与“知晓、决定、努力”的指令相矛盾。它反对后女权主义话语中的期望，即女性会对自己的身体做出选择并付诸行动，同时也反对生育主义言辞以及认为女性应随着“生物钟”的滴答声“迈向”母亲身份的时间线性话语。虽然一些女性试图解决她们的犹豫不决，但另一些女性发现，这种犹豫不决以一种在试图限制自主性的社会中扩展其自主边界的方式，让所有选择都保持开放。
