Discursive construction of the childfree choice

Although we live in patriarchal pronatalist societies, and motherhood is an inevitable identity for the construction of femininity, and the ways of mothering are normative, an increasing number of women prefer to remain childfree. In this context, "For whom can childlessness be a choice?", "Why do women without children prefer to remain without children and with which motivations do they maintain this?" and "How do childfree women build the discursive construction of their choices?" questions are important. With the answers to these questions, getting to know women who are perpetrators of childlessness preference closely and while there are women who are not mothers in every period, it is aimed to reveal the conditions, discursive network and construction that make it possible to express this as a choice. Accordingly, the narrative approach was used as an analysis method, and in-depth interviews were held with 21 women, taking into account individual stories and a feminist perspective. Thus, it was possible to focus on how women establish and narrate the narratives strategically as well as how the cultural and social information that constitutes 'meta narratives' are reproduced. The study was started by questioning the meaning of motherhood, as childlessness was not considered as an issue in itself, but as the 'other' positioned against motherhood. In the first part, which constitutes the conceptual part, a line from the ideology of motherhood to the discourse of choice was followed; childlessness prefer touched on the conceptual distinction, the general course of the world and in Turkey were discussed. In the second part, the discursive construction of the childfree choice has been emphasized by focusing on narratives and analysis. According to the findings obtained, childlessness is an alternative that can mostly be the case for middle class women. However, this does not mean that every middle class woman can easily choose childlessness. In addition to real conditions, women can only consider whether they will have children or not through various motivation items. Feminism is one of the most important components that make this choice possible. Feminism gives women opportunities to strengthen through awareness of their own existence. Today, it is a common belief that it is not necessary to adopt feminism as an element of identity in order to take advantage of the blessings of feminism; but according to the findings, the most free-living women are those who have made feminism part of their identity. Keywords: Childfree Choice, Maternity Ideology, Middle Class, Feminism, Narrative Analysis.