BLOG - Page 4 of 15 - Gateway Women

Jody Day interviewed by Dr Karin on her ‘Love and Life’ Podcast: ‘When You’re Not a Mother, But Wanted to Be’ [Audio & Full Transcript]

September 16, 2021 Jody Day 0

[September 2021] Jody Day, the founder of Gateway Women is here interviewed by Dr. Karin Anderson Abrell for her ‘Love & Life’ Podcast. Karin is the author of ‘Single is the New Black: Don’t Wear White ‘Till It’s Right‘ and her work mainly focuses on the experience of women who are single not by choice. Karin herself is a childless stepmother. In this conversation, as well as discussing World Childless Week 2021, we explore how one of the unintended consequences of second-wave feminism has been an increase in circumstantial childlessness and my frustration that involuntary childlessness is a topic absent […]

Jody interviewed on ‘That Grief Relief Podcast’ with Katie Overy on friendships, dealing with awkward questions, grandchildren-grief, the fetishization of motherhood, holding ourselves back in life whilst ‘waiting’ for motherhood, the unrecognized, unsupported and unspoken nature of ‘disenfranchised grief’ and more…

September 10, 2021 Jody Day 0

September 2021: Jody Day interviewed by Katie Overy for her ‘The Grief Relief Podcast’. The clip above is about how Jody answers intrusive questions about whether she has children. You can listen to the full episode here in which Katie (who is childfree by choice) and I discuss my story, about the experience of the disenfranchised grief of childlessness, about the bingos that childfree women experience as well as childless women, about my new ‘conscious childless elderwomen’ project, about the shifting nature of friendships when you’re childless and your friends all have kids and how this can shift again when […]

World Childless Week 2021: Free Fireside Wisdom Webinar with the #NomoCrones: ‘Leaving a Legacy’. [Recording now available]

August 18, 2021 Jody Day 0

RECORED ON WEDNESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER 2021, 8PM UK TIME: CLICK HERE TO HEAR ABOUT FUTURE SESSIONS! Since we first came together for World Childless Week in 2021, the #NomoCrones (nomo = not-mother and crone is not an insult!) have been meeting each solstice and equinox for a series of informal online zoom gatherings called ‘Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen‘. And we got the band back together again, with an even BIGGER lineup of amazing childless elderwomen World Childless Week 2021 to discuss the often tricky issue of ‘Leaving a Legacy’ as a childless person, as part of a whole day […]

[WATCH NOW] World Childless Week 2021 Free Masterclass: Childlessness & Sexual Intimacy

August 9, 2021 Jody Day 0

RECORDED ON TUESDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER 2021, 7PM UK TIME FOR WORLD CHIDLESS WEEK 2021 Since we hosted the Gateway Women Masterclass on Childlessness & Sexual Intimacy in May 2021, it’s proven to be one of our most popular and most watched discussions. It was an incredible experience for us to Host and for the Panellists to take part in too. So, when the discussions about this year’s World Childless Week ‘themes’ came up, we suggested that this should be one of them and it is. Tuesday 14th September 2021 is ‘Childlessness & Sexual Intimacy’ Day for World Childless Week. This […]

If you’ve ever wanted to have a productive conversation about childlessness with your friend, colleague or HR Director and found it too hard, listen to this brilliant interview by Doryn Wallach @It’s Not a Crisis Podcast – and maybe even share it with them? This is bridge-building in action.

July 26, 2021 Jody Day 0

You can listen to the clips above by clicking on them and find the full interview here or by searching ‘It’s Not a Crisis podcast’ wherever you get your podcasts. The full transcript is below. In this interview with Doryn Wallach, who is a mother in her 40s (as are most of her audience) we talk about the challenges of being childless in a world full of parents, how pronatalism operates, about how the whole ‘As a Mother’ thing works against childless/free women, about the difference between childless & childfree, about the complexity of childlessness after abortion, about what NOT […]

The next time someone suggests to you, ‘Why not have a baby on your own?’, like it’s an easy option, ask them to read ‘The Mother of All Dilemmas’ by Kathleen Guthrie Woods

July 23, 2021 Jody Day 0

When you’re a single and childless-by-circumstance woman approaching the event horizon of your fertility, still hopeful that somehow partnership and children might happen for you, one of the most common pieces of ‘helpful advice’ (and I use those quotes advisedly!) you might hear is, ‘Why don’t you just have one on your own?!’ It can also be phrased in the past tense, once you’re a little older, accompanied by that pitying head-tilt… These enquires are usually delivered as if this were (a) something that hadn’t ever occurred to you and (b) slam-dunk easy. When Guthrie Woods found herself in exactly […]

About normalizing how hard it can be for parents and non-parents to have the ‘hard conversations’; the deep unconscious roots of society’s discomfort with childless women; the gifts of grief and what envy can teach us… Jody interviewed on the Sara Avant Stover podcast, June 2021

June 21, 2021 Jody Day 0

You can listen to the full interview by following the links here, or search ‘Sara Avant Stover’ wherever you get your podcasts. The full transcript is below. In this interview with author, yogi and feminine spirituality teacher, Sara Avant Stover, we go deep into the experience of involuntary childlessness – both my story and, at a much deeper level, the archetypal ‘stories’ that attach to childless women and perhaps lead to much of some people’s evident (and mostly unconscious) discomfort with us. I also talk about what it will take for us to begin to ‘normalize’ that having honest conversations […]

Guest post by Andy Harrod for Father’s Day 2021: ‘Free floating: Who am I if I’m not a Dad?’

June 20, 2021 Jody Day 0

Who am I if I’m not a Dad? This is a question that has and still does haunt me. Of late the hauntings have lessened, but a recent loss has raised again the question of meaning and purpose. Who am I and what kind of life am I trying to live on a rock hurtling around a ball of hot gases? I once read existentialism as there is nothing so I can be anything. I am well aware of the structural and societal inequalities, it was more about the limits I put on myself through the messages I had taken […]

GW Masterclass – the unique experience of childlessness in Australia and New Zealand (Recording now available)

June 13, 2021 Jody Day 0

For the last decade, Gateway Women has attracted and supported many Australian & Kiwi women who have resonated deeply with our empowering and compassionate approach. Both countries were the first outside the UK to get going with our social meetups (now called ‘Gateway Gatherings’) many of which have kept going online during Covid, with new ones beginning to emerge across Australia and NZ. So it is with great pleasure that Jody Day, (GW’s founder) & Karin Enfield (GW’s Operations Director) would like to introduce you to our new dedicated team to lead and guide the work of Gateway Women in […]

The fetishization of the baby bump, the rise in childless and childfree women amongst the Millenial generation and so much more! Jody Day interviewed on the Virgin.Beauty.B!tch Podcast (May 2021)

May 25, 2021 Jody Day 0

In this interview with Christopher and Heather on their ‘Virgin.Beauty.B!tch’ podcast, we go deep into some of the societal and structural issues around both voluntary and involuntary childlessness that I’m absolutely passionate about, but which rarely get discussed. About how pronatalism + consumerism have fetishized and commodified motherhood and how this oppresses all women, whether they are mothers or not. And how it all started with that Demi Moore pregnancy bump shot on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1991 (which doesn’t look quite how I remembered it; my memory has actually merged together 3 separate Vanity Fair covers!). The clip […]

Why do the issues of motherhood get so much more attention than those of childless women? Jody Day interviewed by Helen Russell for her ‘How to be Sad’ Podcast (May 2021)

May 24, 2021 Jody Day 0

Listen to a short clip of Jody Day’s interview with Helen Russell for her How to Be Sad’ podcast above or click here to listen to the whole interview (56-minutes). Read the full transcript below. Helen Russell’s interview with me for her ‘How to be Sad’ podcast interview covers so much ground that I hardly know where to start! We go fearlessly into places that normally childless women don’t discuss publicly including some things I’ve never discussed before: My journey from childhood and young adulthood where I didn’t think I wanted children, to becoming an involuntarily childless woman experiencing unexplained […]

Gateway Women Masterclass: ‘Celebrating the Spinster’ with Donna Ward, Civilla Morgan & Shani Silver (Video + Written Transcript)

May 20, 2021 Jody Day 0

To celebrate the US publication of Donna Ward’s brilliant memoir, ‘She I Dare Not Name: A Spinster’s Meditations on Life’ we hope you enjoy this GW Masterclass on ‘Celebrating the Spinster’. To join us at future GW Masterclasses sign up at www.bit.ly/gw-masterclass As I wrote in my 2020 interview with Donna Ward about her book: She I Dare Not Name: A Spinster’s Meditations on Life energised me in a way that few books still have the capacity to do, so eloquently and accurately does it portray not only ‘the life unexpected’ (to paraphrase my own book’s title!) but also, the life […]

How do we help our friends who are mothers to become ‘mother-allies’ to us? Jody Day interviewed on ‘A Certain Age’ Podcast by Katie Fogarty

May 11, 2021 Jody Day 0

Listen or share the 3-minute clip from the show above. Click here to listen to the full 38-minute interview. See below for a full written transcript below. It was such a pleasure being interviewed by Katie Fogarty for her ‘A Certain Age’ podcast which ‘celebrates life 50+ in all its sexy, smart, funny, fabulous, weird, sometimes unsettling, yet profoundly liberating glory.’ What I appreciated most deeply, apart from Katie’s warmth and humility was her genuine desire, as a mother, to understand more about what it means to be a childless woman, and how to become a better friend and ally to […]

‘The Plant-Woman’ – a guest blog by Rachel Giles about nature, healing, grief and finding your Plan B

April 30, 2021 Jody Day 0

RACHEL GILES is a writer, lecturer and editor on art and design and has worked for the National Gallery, Tate, V&A, Gagosian and other galleries and museums. She grows and sells flowers from her cutting garden in London and is passionate about nature’s ability to heal. In 2014 she attended one of Gateway Women’s Reignite Weekends and in 2016 she completed her art history MA dissertation on the visual representation of infertility and childlessness at Birkbeck, London, with distinction. She spoke at Fertility Fest 2018 and co-curated Arts at ESHRE – Fertility Fest’s visual art exhibition – in Barcelona in […]

How Do I Cope with Mother’s Day When I’m Childless?

April 27, 2021 Jody Day 0

Although the UK has already had its ‘Mothers Day’ (it’s called ‘Mothering Sunday’ and was back in March), we recognise that for many of our readers, members and followers, one of the most difficult days of the year is coming up soon on Sunday May 9th. With that in mind, we are offering TWO free GW Masterclass Webinars to support you this International Mother’s Day (and all are welcome, whether it’s Mother’s Day for you or not!) For our first free webinar of the day, I was joined by Judy Graham (Womenhood Counselling) and Sarah Roberts (The Empty Cradle) both […]

« 1 2 3 4 5 6 … 15 »