Challenging Dominant Discourses: Identity and change and the experience of 'infertility' and 'involuntary childlessness'

In this article I draw on data from a completed feminist sociological study within which I was concerned to explore the experience (especially women's) of 'infertility' and 'involuntary childlessness.' I begin by outlining the focus of current discussion and debate and the associated dominant discourses. With reference to the experience of my respondents I then consider issues of definition and identity and change and adaptation arguing that respondent accounts represent a challenge to the discourses (including those of feminists and social scientists) that dominate discussion in this area. Throughout I consider the difference between the biological condition of 'infertility' and the social experience of 'involuntarily childlessness' and reflect on the significance of the biological and the social for my respondents. Finally, I outline the necessity of making these issues central to feminist concerns and consider the value and limitations of focusing on the discursive.