Cinderella’s shoe broken: maternity, no maternity, and parenting in stories told by women

Abstract

Qualitative study, based on Oral History, conducted with nineteen women, with the purpose of analyzing narratives of women without children in relation to motherhood and not motherhood. The analysis of narrative points out that women have experienced historically changes in values and practices that have resulted in new conceptions about feminine roles, impacting the feminine ideal of woman-mother, present in the social imaginary. Motherhood, which was socially constructed, takes on new value in contemporary times and whether or not child results from the desire of every woman.