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.

Debbie Harry and Stefanie Powers. Stefanie always says she didn't have one child, she had thousands as she has been running an education centre in Kenya since the 80s.

I guess it’s the same concept as if someone posted asking about ‘Black female authors you enjoy.’ You wouldn’t come on and say ‘all authors of note are worthy of recognition and esteem.’ You’d presume that the poster had an interest in/wanted to know more about authors who perhaps share a lived experience with themselves.

It’s the same notion here. Perhaps the op is looking for interesting women they can read about who share a lived experience with them.

@Kanaloa true! Loving the thread, lots of women mentioned I didn't know if they had children or not , but love them. Very interesting topic

Because this is board is for women who do not have children. We are discussing women who do not have children. It's really not difficult to understand.

Thank you but I do understand 😬

That is not evidenced in your posts.

Childless/childfree women in the public eye are interesting as they provide a counter narrative to our pro natalist society.

I agree on Kathy Burke, also actors Natasha Lyonne, Harriet Walter, Maxine Peake and Jennifer Coolidge.

They can be admired beause they've navigated the usual stuff women without children get (times 10 in a lot of their cases) and still concentrated on reaching the heights in their chosen professions. More admirably, a lot of them feel no need to treat their non-parental status as an issue. They needed to be pretty damned focussed to get where they are and ignore all the 'but what about children?' questions thrown at them all the time.

I you could've been like me and done not all that much! 😂

I do look after children for a living though, and love them very much. That's my contribution to the world!

PJ Harvey has always been my hero. Kylie is an icon. Dolly is an angel on earth.
No idea if that was a conscious decision on anyone's part but they're all such strong women dedicated to their career maybe they had more of an "if it happens it happens" attitude and it didn't, and that is a story I've seen play out a lot with my friends - and me, for that matter.

So many good examples already but I'm going to add the wonderful Pippa Funnell, sportswoman and writer.

Absolute legend, the first person (and only woman) to win the GrandSlam of Eventing, which has only been won twice. A multiple Olympic medalist (two silvers, and a bronze), she's been European champion three times in a row.

She's still world class in her 50s and has also found time to write 18 fiction books and two non-fiction as well as having four computer games named after her and starring her.

I'd like mention Barbara Windsor - she didn't always make great choices in her life, but she came from nothing and weathered knockback after knockback in the early days of her career, before making it as a household name. Also highly respected in the industry for her professionalism, hard work and lack of snobbery.

Her autobiography is a candid and interesting read.

Lucy Worsley

Mary Beard, historian.

Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut.

Virginia Wade, tennis player
Gloria Steinem, feminist and activist.

Sandra Oh, both for herself and Christina Yang

'Lucy Worsley'

She's so great. Brilliant, engaging, so stylish. She said in an interview that she had been 'educated out of the urge to reproduce ' - she got quite a backlash for it but meant that through learning about history, she had discovered her passion, and her work has become incredibly important to her

Ohhhh yes.

Love Cristina. I'm catching up with Greys these days and by god it's a pregnancy-fest!

I actually don't think about whether they are childless or otherwise

Lily Tomlin
Marian Keyes
Michelle Yeoh
Marina Sirtis

Also Miriam Margolyes - for a million reasons, her childfree status is just one of them!

100% agree, she is brilliant!

Unfortunately when it comes to famous childfree women the media doesn't seem to take the same stance - some of the women mentioned have had to put up with anything from speculation about whether a man left them for someone more fertile to whether they are actually capable of doing their job

Mary Beard has two children.

Angela Rippon

I know this is about child free women but Seth Rogan's interview with Kelly Clarkson about why he and his wife haven't had kids made me laugh (I also don't have kids and agreed with everything he said).