Women before the mirrors of motherhood: the mothers who choose not to be

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to rethink the woman-mother binomial from a non-naturalized analytical viewpoint. To do so voice is given to the women who have willingly "chosen" not to be mothers, with the aim of knowing the processes which led them to this decision, as well as the experiences and social pressures to which they were subjected for not fulfilling the teleologically assigned maternal destiny of their lives. What is outstanding is the need to contextualize the historical moment in which it was possible for women to accede to this reproductive right, which has been the axis of the struggle of the feminist movement, by demanding autonomy to control their bodies to decide maternity freely. Likewise, the article states that maternity is a complex subject that cannot be reduced merely to cultural or, otherwise, biological aspects, but rather it is interwoven with the level of subconscience and, hence, desire .