Jody Day, Author at Gateway Women

Poster affixed to telegraph pole: "lost mojo"

Surviving the Childless Weekend Blues

April 10, 2023 Jody Day 0

There, it’s said. Weekends can be absolute hell as a single, childless woman. “They creep up on you,” said one friend recently. Many of us are so busy with work commitments and after-work activities Monday-to-Friday that we can’t wait for the peace and quiet of the weekend in order to recover. And then, when we wake up on Saturday morning to an empty bed, an empty house and an empty weekend, it doesn’t feel relaxing; it feels hideously oppressive. Alternatively, we pack our weekend schedule to the gunnels with activities and appointments only to feel burnt out and resentful and […]

Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen on ‘Mothers & Daughters’

March 21, 2023 Jody Day 0

In this session of ‘Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen’, Jody Day (founder of Gateway Women) and her #NomoCrone panel (Nomo=not mother + crone is not an insult!) discuss the sometimes challenging topic of mothers & daughters – a tricky relationship for many of us, and with a unique flavour if you are childless not by choice. Recorded on the March 2023 Equinox; a time of turning away and turning towards, depending on which hemisphere you live in; and falling the day after Mother’s Day in the UK & Ireland, this felt like a poignant moment in the wheel of the […]

Getting through Mother’s Day as a Childless Woman

March 18, 2023 Jody Day 0

UK and Ireland have their version of ‘Mothers Day’ (it’s called ‘Mothering Sunday’) on March 19th 2023. With International Mother’s Day coming up in May, we hope this helps you too. Both of the recording below were offered from our hearts in the hope that by sharing the strategies that we’ve each developed over the years, we can help you to naviage the complex emotions and triggering situations of this very multi-layered holiday with more ease. As this is one of the most difficult days of the year for many childless not by choice women, over the years we have […]

Mothers & Childless Daughters – a very hot topic for our next free Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen webinar

March 15, 2023 Jody Day 0

Register free at this link, the recording will be sent out the next day to all who register. Hope to see you there live, the chat is moderated and is usually pretty lively too! Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen is a series of quarterly webinars that I host with an inspiring panel of childless elderwomen in their late 50s, 60s and 70s. They are public, free, open to all and you are welcome to join us whatever age you are! We meet each Equinox and Solstice and our next one is coming up soon on Monday 20th March – Spring […]

Encore Airing: ‘It’s International Women’s Day, not International Mother’s Day!’ – Jody Day on New Legacy Radio [Audio + Transcript]

March 8, 2023 Jody Day 0

‘It’s International Woman’s Day, not International Mother’s Day.’ Jody Day was interviewed by Christine J. Erickson, founder of the New Legacy Institute on 8th March 2022, and this episode, from the Pilot Series of New Legacy Radio, was re-aired on 7th March 2023. Click here to listen or read the transcript on the New Legacy Radio website. Or search ‘New Legacy Radio’ wherever you get your pods And do connect/follow the New Legacy Institute on Twitter @NLInstitute and Instagram @newlegacyinstitute or explore the New Legacy Institute website, where I am proud to be a volunteer Advisor.

[Audio + Transcript] ‘Why is Policy Engagement Essential for People Without Children?’ Christine Erickson, Founder of the New Legacy Institute in conversation with NLI Advisors Jody Day, Dr Robin Hadley, Therese Shechter and Nandita Bajaj [Recorded Jan 2023]

January 26, 2023 Jody Day 0

Why is Policy Engagement Essential for People Without Children? on New Legacy Radio, a Voice America Show. [Episode recorded 23 January 2023]. Featuring Christine J. Erickson, founder of New Legacy Insititute in conversation with New Legacy Institute Advisors: Jody Day (founder of Gateway Women and author of ‘Living the Life Unexpected’), Dr Robin Hadley (adademic researcher and the author of ‘How Is a Man Supposed to be a Man? Male Childlessness – a Life Course Disrupted’), Therese Shechter (founder of female-led production house Trixie Films and director of ‘My So Called Selfish Life’) and Nandita Bajaj (Lecturer on pronatalism at […]

Revolutionizing Your Single Holidays (aka ‘the festive season’), a free GW Masterclass with Jody Day, Shani Silver, Sasha Cagen, Yael Wolfe & Nicola Slawson

December 1, 2022 Jody Day 0

The holiday season, from Halloween right through till New Year’s Eve, can sometimes feel like a special kind of hell for single women without children… but what if they didn’t have to be? What if you could craft your own way to celebrate in a way that works for you? If you’d like to explore this radical thought then watch this amazing webinar, filmed in 2021 with me, Jody Day, and my four arse-kicking, taboo-busting single writers, podcasters, artists, coaches and thinkers for this amazing Gateway Women Masterclass on ‘Revolutionizing the Single Holidays’. Recorded live on Saturday 11th December 2021. […]

[Watch now] Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen on ‘Renewal’: Solstice 2022: Wed 21 December

October 26, 2022 Jody Day 0

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice on/around 21 December is the shortest night of the year and is celebrated as such by our ancestors. They knew it presaged the return of longer days and shorter nights, the return of the ‘Sun/Son’. It was a festival of rebirth and renewal at the promise of another year of warmth and food to come. This conversatation was recorded live on 21 December 2022 and you can watch it here now. You can watch past sessions here and sign up to Jody’s mailing list for future sessions here. Filmed on Wednesday 21 December […]

[Audio + Transcript] This Mythic Life: The Hagitude Sessions – Episode 5: Dr Sharon Blackie interviews Jody Day [19 September 2022]

September 30, 2022 Jody Day 0

This Mythic Life: The Hagitude Sessions – episode 5 [19 September 2022]. Dr Sharon Blackie, the author of ‘Hagitude: Reimagining the Second Half of Life‘ interviews Jody Day, founder of Gateway Women and one of the women interviewed in her book. Click here to listen to the full episode or search ‘This Mythic Life’ wherever you get your podcasts. And find out more about Hagitude – the book, the program and the podcast at: www.hagitude.org FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW Intro 00:19 I’m Dr. Sharon Blackie and I’d like to welcome you to my podcast This Mythic Life. Like all of […]

[Audio + Transcript] The Menstruality Podcast – Episode 54: Finding Hope and Meaning When You’re Childless-not-by-choice with Jody Day [15 September 2022]

September 22, 2022 Jody Day 0

The Menstruality Podcast – Episode 54: Finding Hope and Meaning When You’re Childless-not-by-choice (Jody Day) 15 September 2022. Sophie Jane Hardy from RedSchool.net interviews Jody Day, founder of Gateway Women. Click here to listen to episode or search ‘Menstruality’ wherever you get your podcasts. Full written transcript below. ABSTRACT Jody’s personal journey through grief, denial, hopelessness to real acceptance of her life as a childless woman. The creation of Gateway Women and Jody’s mission to make the world understand childless women, and help women who are childless-not-by-choice to understand themselves. The ‘bingos’ that childless women hear all the time. Preparing yourself to answer […]

[Watch recording] Letters to Our Younger Selves with the #NomoCrones for World Childless Week 2022

August 18, 2022 Jody Day 0

If you could write a letter and post it back in time to your younger self, what would it say? On September 14, the #NomoCrones gathered around the Zoom-fire to share their letters and reflections on the “Letter to our Younger Selves” theme of this day for World Childless Week 2022. Whether you were with us live, or weren’t able to make it, or just would like to watch it again, please click the video link above or this link to watch. Thank you to each of the fabulous #NomoCrones for taking part and for sharing their amazing letters with […]

‘Embracing Childless Elderhood’: Jody Day’s talk at the 2022 Childless Collective Summit

July 17, 2022 Jody Day 0

Today is the final day of Katy Seppi’s ‘Childless Collective Summit’ and the theme for today is ‘Looking Ahead’. I’m speaking on ‘Embracing Childless Elderhood’ at 6pm BST (1pm EDT) which, as some of you may be aware, has been a topic I’ve been leaning into for a few years now and which will increasingly be the focus of my work going forward. Although the opportunity to watch my talk for free has passed, you can still watch it (and the other 39 presentations at the Summit) by purchasing a Pace Yourself Pass which lasts 12-months. If you’d like to learn […]

‘Why Does Dismantling Pronatalism Even Matter?’ Jody Day interviewed on New Legacy Community Radio [June 2022]

June 19, 2022 Jody Day 0

NEW LEGACY COMMUNITY RADIO 7 June 2022 – ‘Why Does Dismantling Pronatalism Even Matter?” Founder of New Legacy Institute, Christine Erickson, interviews Jody Day, Founder of Gateway Women. Click here to listen or search ‘New Legacy Radio’ wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find New Legacy Insitute on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. ABSTRACT Excluded from policy measures and absent in DEI frameworks, even where laws and policies are designed to prevent discrimination based on family status, pronatalism is so deeply engrained in our social, professional and systemic psyches, that its impact remains unacknowledged. As a result, non-parents remain […]

‘Spinsterhood Reimagined’ – Jody Day interviewed by Lucy Meggeson [May 2022]

June 5, 2022 Jody Day 0

Lucy Meggeson is a British writer and broadcast producer (who really should have been on this side of the microphone before as she has a lovely voice!) and is on a mission to reclaim the word ‘spinster’. She has no children and although she now feels ‘childfree’, making peace with that was not without pain, as she shares with me in this interview. We also talk about the work it takes to construct a new idenity as a woman without children in our pronatalist society, and how this can be as transformative as becoming a mother yet remains unrecognised by […]

[Watch/Read now] Jody’s new TED talk, ‘Social Plankton: Why Single Non-Mothers Are The Fuel of The Future’

April 9, 2022 Jody Day 0

This talk is currently only available to watch on Facebook here whilst it is being uploaded to TED.com You do not need to have a Facebook account to watch. The talk is 13 mins long, followed by a 45min Q&A. My new TED talk with TEDxGateway is now live and available to watch. I wrote it to explore the negative bias against single non-mothers (both childless and childfree). Covering a broad sweep across depth psychology, fairy tales, modern media stereotypes and individual lived experiences, it will encourage you to open your eyes, your heart, your organizations and your communities to […]

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Articles by Jody Day