Title: Social representations of ‘childless’ women in Bangladesh
Abstract: The research paper challenges the marginalization process of ‘childless’ women
in Bangladeshi society. Here, Joan W. Scott’s theoretical approach is
used as major guide to examine the gendered social system that a
‘childless’ woman encounters regarding her reproductive status. Methodologically,
I look at society’s lens – scrutinizing various social and
cultural representations that society made to stigmatize ‘childless’
women in the name of ‘represent’ them. Therefore, to challenge this
stigma-normalization process, I put childless word within quotation
mark before using it to refer women throughout my paper. After analysing
data, the study demonstrates the subjugation of ‘childless’ women
is embedded in society’s pronatalist ideology-essentialization of having
children. This pronatalism puts foremost demand on ‘motherhood’
in patriarchal social structure thus biological ‘role’ became as only ‘role’
for all women to be fit in society. Moreover, motherhood together with
other institutions-health seeking sector, religion and masculinity etc.
exacerbates women’s lives where a ‘non-mother’ woman gets discrediting
identity (e.g. childless, barren, infertile etc.) from society compare
to a ‘mother’ one. Furthermore, both interview and representation
analysis indicate that, ‘childless’ women exercise their agency either
subtle or direct way depending their other attributes, surrounded environment
and worldview. Overall, society historically constitutes a never-
ended stigmatization process by creating old and new representations
around women’s reproductive status which continuously
excluding ‘childless’ women from getting the ‘whole’ sense.
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-12-16
Language: en
Type: article
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