Masters Degrees (Psychology)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Psychology) by Author "Attridge, Nicole"

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    Inconceivable: An exploratory study of South African childfree lesbian couples
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Attridge, Nicole; Lesch, Elmien; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Lesbians have historically neither been associated with motherhood nor considered fit to parent. However, in recent decades in an increasing number of countries, including South Africa, lesbian couples have obtained the legal rights to and increasing opportunities for motherhood. Despite these changes that make motherhood an accessible status for lesbians, as well as the prevailing beliefs that all women inherently aspire to motherhood, many lesbian couples choose to remain childfree. There is limited research regarding the latter group of women, and this present study therefore aimed to address this gap. This exploratory study adopted a feminist social constructionist framework and focused on exploring childfree lesbian couples’ constructions of their childfree status. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten white, middle-class, childfree lesbian couples (twenty participants) living in Cape Town, South Africa. Carol Gilligan’s Listening Guide method was then applied to conduct an analysis of the participants’ accounts. The analysis identified two major contrapuntal voices, each made up of three minor voices. Firstly, the Conscious Voice, made up of No Maternal Instinct; Obstacles; and An Alternative Path. Secondly, the Covert Voice, consisting of Unnatural; If I Could Have, I Would Have; and Inequality. The analysis found underlying conflicts between the participants’ Conscious and Covert voices reflecting the contradictions in their personal lives, as well as within the South African context in which they conduct their public lives. The Conscious voice conveyed a lack of felt desire for a child and the practical barriers lesbian couples need to overcome in order to have a child. However, the Covert voice suggested that their childfree status was less about choosing not to have children, and more about struggling to construct a lesbian motherhood alternative to the perceived ideal of heteronormative parenting in South Africa. A significant finding was that, despite asserting self-aware lesbian identities, their constructs of motherhood and parenting were still strongly influenced by heteronormative discourses and a pronatalist context. These findings suggest that although the participants lead meaningful and satisfying lives without the experience of motherhood, much more still needs to be done to expand alternative constructions of motherhood, parenthood and families before lesbian couples will be offered an equal social context in which they can consider motherhood without the conscious and unconscious barriers that are posed by hegemonic heteronormative constructions.