Sad and Incomplete: A Feminine View of The Unfertile Woman

Abstract

This paper discusses the results of a research aimed at the investigation of social representations of female infertility, among women of different social layers. We interviewed 180 women between 18 and 40 years old, half of them living in low-income neighborhoods and the other half in middle-class neighborhoods. Each group was divided into 3 subgroups: a) 30 married women, with at least one biological child; b) 30 women married for at least a year, without children; c) 30 single women, without children. For data collection, the technique of free association was utilized, the generating expression being "woman who can't have children". Specific questions on the subject of interest were also asked. As main elements of the representational field, data showed sadness, incompleteness, frustration, pressure from others, loneliness, inferiority, adoption, search for solutions and not a problem, all of which reaffirmed the permanence of the infertility concept as a stigmatizing condition for women.