Women without Children
How does a woman without children feel about it? Sad? Relieved? Guilty?
Photo by Jens PaapeIn 2011 I created an autobiographical, researched radio play, a collage in words.
My starting point: If you’re a woman of 45, 50, 55 or older and you don’t have any children – how do you feel about it? Sad? Relieved? Guilty? A bit of everything? That’s how I felt.
I went through my address book, asked friends and friends of friends whether I could interview them. I wanted to hear stories, impressions, individual women’s voices. I wanted to ask: Did you always assume you’d have children when you were young? What advantages have you had professionally because you haven’t had any? How do people react when they hear you’re childless—do you ever feel left out? If you could design your life all over again, would you be a mother?
The form of Women Without Children grew out of these interviews. Every word in the piece was said to me (or by me) in an interview held in either English or German.
I then asked nine women, all friends or friends’ friends, to help me record the mosaic of women’s voices.
