Materinstvo kot izbira : ženske brez otrok

Gorjan, Urška (author), Poljšak-Škraban, Olga (mentor)

Vloga žensk v družbi je bila dolgo časa podrejena vlogi moških, ki je veljala za pomembnejšo in večvredno. Poudarjanje in poveličevanje materinstva ženske čutijo kot pritisk, ki je osrednjega pomena pri njihovi odločitvi. Domneva se, da si vse ženske želijo roditi in da je to njihova največja izpolnitev. Prostovoljna odločitev za življenje brez otrok je relativno moderen pojav. Danes ženska vloga ni več enaka kot nekoč, saj se lahko ženska uresničuje na več področjih. Namen magistrskega dela je bil ugotoviti, zakaj se vedno več žensk odloča, da ne bodo imele otrok, poiskati in raziskati vzroke za to odločitev ter ugotoviti, ali in kako se življenje žensk brez otrok razlikuje od žensk, ki so matere. Vzporedno s tem nas je zanimal njihov pogled na odločitev ter kako okolica sprejema njihovo odločitev. Z raziskavo smo želeli osvetliti ta pojav ter preseči stereotipne poglede na ženske, ki so se odločile, da ne bodo imele otrok. V raziskavi je bila uporabljena kvalitativna metodologija, izvedena na podlagi analize polstrukturiranih intervjujev. Podatke smo zbrali z intervjuji, ki so bili opravljeni s sedmimi ženskami, ki so se odločile, da otrok ne bodo imele. Rezultati raziskave kažejo, da so ženske, ki so se odločile, da ne bodo imele otrok, imele lepo otroštvo, ki ga je zaznamovala močna povezanost med intervjuvanko in njeno materjo. Matere žensk, ki ne želijo imeti otrok, so v materinstvo vlagale veliko časa in energije, medtem ko so bili očetje fizično ali emocionalno odsotni. Matere so prevzele celotno breme starševstva. V očeh intervjuvank so se žrtvovale za svoje otroke. Intervjuvanke menijo, da imajo polno in zadovoljujoče življenje in si ne želijo vanj vnašati še večjih naporov in stresa, ki ga prinaša starševstvo. Svoje odločitve nikoli ne skrivajo in mnenijo, da jo je njihova okolica sprejela. Vse vidijo in sprejemajo tako pozitivne kot negativne posledice svoje odločitve in večina jih meni, da odločitve nikoli ne bodo obžalovale. Naloga se zaključuje s predlogom, da bi se morali v socialni pedagogiki zavedati neenake vloge žensk v družbi in mehanizmov, ki tako stanje vzdržujejo. Socialni pedagog mora upoštevati spol uporabnika in pri tem upoštevati tudi pomen feminističnih načel ter presegati stereotipne podobe, ki so v družbi zelo pogoste.

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: materinstvo, ženske brez otrok, materinski mit, feminizem
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Typology: 2.09 - Master's Thesis
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publisher: [U. Gorjan]
• Year: 2015
• Number of pages: 141 str.
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-71882
• UDC: 305(043.2)
• COBISS.SI-ID: 10647113
• Publication date in RUL: 29.07.2015

Secondary language

• Language: English
• Title: Motherhood as a chooice – women without children

Abstract

The role of women in society was and predominantly still is considered as inferior in comparison to the superiority of the role of men. Motherhood was being glorified and was as such the primary duty and responsibility of every woman. This fact is an undoubted psychological pressure and a burden for women and it therefore determines their decision about motherhood. It was and it is somehow understood and selfexplanatory that all women wish and want to have children as motherhood is their highest ideal. If they would not accomplish this goal, their role would be cosidered as unfulfilled or even unjustified. The voluntary decision of women for a life without children is relatively modern. In modern times the role of a woman is not as it was in the past, because women in modern society can fulfill themselves and their role within their environment in many diffrent ways and with many different means. The pupose of this work was to try to determine the reasons for a growing number women which choose not to have children, to attempt to search for and to research the reasons for these decisions and to try to find the difference between the lives of women without children in comparison to the lives of mothers. In addittion to this, we tried to enlighten how our sample group of childfree women will describe their decision and even more importantly how the society will react to it and how these women feel about these reactions. WE also tried to find some explanations for this growing trend and to look beyond and avoid the stereotypical looks and opinions about this phenomenon. We used the qualitative methodology, based on the analysis of semistructured interviews. The data was gathered through interviews with seven women which chose to live without having children. The results show that these women lived a happy childhood and typically with a strong attachment between them and their mothers. Their mothers were strongly devoted to their role of motherhood and homecaring, while their fathers were predominantly psysically and emotionally absent. The entire burden of motherhood and homecare was threfore left to the mothers. In the eyes of the interviewed women, their mothers sacrified themselves for this purpose. In all cases in this work, the women consider that their lives are fulfilled, fully satisfactory and they have no need or desire to add any addittional obligations, resposibilities or stress in the form of parenthood. They do not attempt to hide their decison for their way of life and they feel that their environment has fully accepted it. All of these women are aware of and feel comfortable with all the positive and negative consequences of their decisions and they are fully convinced that they will never have any regrets. In the conclusion this work suggests that social pedagogy should show some awareness of the existence of unequalness of the role of women in the society and of the mechanisms which sustain such status. The social pedagog should take into respect the gender of the individual and consider the importance of feminist principles and should reach above the stereotypes which are all too common.

• Keywords: woman