Women without children you admire?

[JorisBonson]

Just been bellylaughing at a Kathy Burke podcast and remembered how much I love her. She's gone through life being unashamedly herself and not taking a jot of interest in societal norms. I loved her Channel 4 doc about being a woman.

Also Beth Stern, Howard Stern's wife, who devotes herself to rescuing and rehoming animals.

Yes - there are plenty of women with children that I admire, but it's particularly interesting to read about women with whom I share a minority trait, so I can relate to something fundamental about their lives.

Didn't anyone else read the heading as women who do not have children that you admire?

I did read the heading. I just didn't really understand what not having children had to do with women you admire.

A doctor I knew early in my medical career. A consultant paediatrician who had never married or had children but was absolutely brilliant with sick children and worried parents and very demanding of those of us assigned to her team. I learned so much from her.

That's lovely, @KohlaParasaurus.

It's particularly interesting to read about women I admire and also have something significant in common with. For comparison, I also like to read about admirable women from a working class background. I don't admire them because they are working class, I admire them anyway but the fact they are working class makes them of particular interest to me, because I am too. Another example for me would be 'women who are not conventionally attractive' or even women from [my hometown].

You sound great 😊

It's such a good feeling when you find a role model at work.

More perpetually looking for inspiration than great, @WeekendInTheBoondocks !

Jennifer Aniston

People acted like they had some control over her womb

She MUST have a baby because it was expected of her and the PEOPLE wanted it to happen

She recently revealed she's infertile

I can't imagine how hard all of the Jen's Baby... headlines must've been and the fact her husband left her for someone who could

Oprah had a child as a teenager who died - I have often wondered if it informed her choice to be child free

Oh sorry I had not RTFT properly

So what's the point of this board then?

RE Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May business

This is why I DESPISE the writer Amanda Craig because her books are shit anyway but she was disgusting and despicable in what she said about Maeve Binchy (who was child free ) after her death

I must look up the Ricky Gervais thing.

I thought Jennifer Aniston did great when she went on a talk show with a box of eggs and said "well, I brought these because people seem to want to talk about them so much".

In terms of non famous childfree women, my aunties (in another country) faved a lot of societal pressure but just ignored it. They also wrote books and set up a literary scholarship fund.

Definitely Dolly and Jennifer Anniston. Dolly is just an inspiration and has done so much good. I respect Jennifer so much for having to live through decades of the media speculating about her.

I totally agree about Dolly Parton. I really admire her a lot for various reasons. I think she’s a wonderful storyteller.

Not very current, but I would also add Louisa May Alcott. DD and I read her favourite Little Women together every other year, and DD did her school project of choice on Louisa May Alcott. She was a very interesting woman, and was actually child free, although she took in her niece and brought her up.

Louisa May Alcott is definitely an interesting choice.

Her near-contemporary, Susan Coolidge (Sarah Chauncey Woolsey) of the 'What Katy Did' series was also childfree and unmarried.

Unlike the 'Little Women' all of whom got married and had children (excepting Beth who died prematurely), the main character of the first three books, Katy, was married but without children by the end of the last book in the saga, although her sisters Clover and Elsie had both had children by the last book, 'In the High Valley'.

It isn't explained whether Katy's childfree status is a choice; the result of her husband's naval career, or an after-effect of her childhood injury and illness. In 'What Katy Did Next' it's mentioned that she had a 'special gift' with children and it's Amy Ashe's love for her that leads to her taking the European Tour (as similarly undertaken by Amy March in LW).

Of course, for both Alcott and Coolidge, in that era, the choice not to marry (or lack of opportunity if they'd wanted to) would automatically have ruled out children.

I just find it interesting that she wrote so much about children, girlhood, marriage, mothers, things like that. But that she herself didn’t marry or have children. She obviously had a strong interest in children though. It makes you wonder about what she must have been like. Whether she was interested in men at all, if she perhaps preferred women, or if she remained unmarried due to her feminist principles, or if she was in love with someone who didn’t reciprocate, or just never found anybody, or perhaps felt simply fulfilled by being the ‘mother’ of her niece since she was raising her.

I think I find it more interesting because she was obviously interested in children, so it raises the question in your head of why she didn’t have any. A bit like Jo Frost, I suppose! I remember seeing a thread on here, I think, about supernanny not having kids. Not that it’s so shocking, but I guess it surprises people that someone who bases their whole career around children hasn’t got any themselves.

I feel Kylie Minogue is worthy of inclusion - by her own account, her breast cancer treatment meant children were not an option for her. I believe she is topping the charts as we speak with 'Padam Padam' at the age of 55 and, whether you like her music or not, has never been out of fashion since the late 80s.

Her music has been hit and miss for me over the years but as an inspiration generally, a double-score for me as both a childfree woman and a woman still successful in middle-age.

Kate Adie

Does anyone remember watching One Born Every Minute in the early days? There was a senior midwife who hadn’t married or had children and she saw her job very much as a vocation. She was such a calming influence on many expectant nervous mothers and I thought she was absolutely wonderful.

Renée Zellweger, Condoleezza Rice, Dita von Teese, Helen Mirren

Queen Elizabeth I.
Dian Fossey, primatologist.
Sally Ride, astronaut.
Martina Navratilova.
Billie Jean King, tennis player.
Gertrude Bell, explorer.