Memórias de uma ausência: mulheres sem filhos e suas narrativas sobre maternidade no Paraná do século XX

Abstract

This research intends to problematize how non-mothers reconstruct their memories of motherhood and how they situate themselves amongst the massive campaign of the 20th Century upholding the alleged female obligation to bear children. Methodologically, the research is based on the principles of oral history in order to discuss the reconstructions and significations performed by the interviewees concerning their experience of not being mothers. The interviews with non-mothers are divided in three great groups. The first group, referred to as 1st generation, is formed by women born in the 1920s and 1930s. The second group, or 2nd generation, comprises women born in the 1940s and 1950s. The third group is constituted by women born amidst the sexual revolution, that is, in the 1960s and 1970s, who initiated their sexual/reproductive lives in a period when contraceptive as well as conceptive technologies and methods became more available. The interviews reveal the immense plurality among non-mothers, pointing to how each woman's agency exceeds the attempts to categorize them.