Conscious Childless Elderwomen Archives

[WATCH NOW] ‘The Power of Elderwomen Role Models’ – Recorded December 2023

November 2, 2023 Jody Day 0

NEXT SESSION – WEDNESDAY 20TH MARCH 2024, 8PM GMT. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER AND ALSO SUGGEST OUR TOPIC! For December 2023’s Solstice session, we gathered around the Zoom Fire to unpack ‘The Power of the Role Model’ for those of us ageing without children. Who are they? Where the heck are they? How do we find them? How do we become them? And why is all this so important?! As well as discussing our role models, I shared the results of the poll of YOUR role models (for those who chose to answer that question on the registration form). You […]

[WATCH NOW] ‘You’re so Lucky to Not Have Kids! — Does that include when we are old?’ A Special Fireside Wisdom session for World Childless Week 2023

August 14, 2023 Jody Day 0

The NomoCrones (nomo = not-mother = crone is not an insult!) gathered around the Zoom cauldron for a special ‘Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen’ session for World Childless Week on Friday 15th September. Our discussion was framed around the World Childless Week theme for Friday 15th September which was ‘Words That Hurt: You’re So Lucky to Not Have Kids”. We explored whether the perceived ‘luck’ in that bingo (throwaway statement) holds true for those of us ageing without children too… It was, as ever, a lively and frank discussion which did not shy away from the challenges of aging/ageing without children […]

WATCH NOW: Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen. What does it mean to be a ‘Radical Old Woman?’ [Recorded 21 June 2023]

June 22, 2023 Jody Day 0

Sign up to Jody’s mailing list for future sessions here. CAPTIONS ARE AUTO-GENERATED AND NOT ALWAYS ACCURATE! 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 what it means to each of us to be and become ‘Radical Old Women’. What does the word radical actually mean? Recorded on the June 2023 Solstice; a powerful fulcrum moment in the year, whether you are in the Northern or Southern hemisphere, this was a conversation by turns powerful, tender, shocking and surprising. Featuring: […]

[WATCH NOW] Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen on ‘Mothers & Daughters’

March 21, 2023 Jody Day 1

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 […]

[WATCH NOW] Mothers & Childless Daughters – a Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen recording

March 15, 2023 Jody Day 0

[Above] Watch March 2023’s Equinox Fireside Wisdom Session on the fiery topic of ‘Mothers & Daugherss’. Full panellist details, resource slides and links here For March 2023’s session, we discussed the the topic of ‘Mothers and Daughters’… partly inspired by the significant responses I got to the Substack essay I published about my own mother’s dementia, and how that was shifting the dynamics within our (very challenging) relationship. Thank you to my wonderful #NomoCrone guests (Nomo = not mother + crone is not an insult!) Stella Duffy (UK/NZ) www.stelladuffy.blog Maria Hill (US) www.sensitiveevolution.com Donna Ward (AUS) www.donna-ward.com.au Trish Faulks (UK) […]

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

September 30, 2022 Jody Day 2

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 […]

[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 […]

[WATCH NOW] ‘Childless vs. Childfree: Does Age Soften this Distinction?’

February 24, 2022 Jody Day 0

Watch our March 2022 Equinox Session of Fireside Wisdom:‘Childless vs. Childfree: A false binary that ageing without children subverts?’ Recorded live on Sunday 20th March 2022 Join some of our regular #NomoCrone childless panel, plus some very special childfree elderwomen guests to discuss the ways that ageing without children impacts our identity and lived experience of non-parenthood. We’ll also discuss the difference between being a childless vs. childfree stepmother/stepgrandmother; whether childless/childfree are helpful terms or whether we need to think of it more as a spectrum; about what can be challenging in opening dialogue between childless/free women and SO MUCH […]

Watch ‘Solstice Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen’: Recorded 21st Dec 2021

December 9, 2021 Jody Day 0

RECORDED LIVE ON ZOOM ON TUESDAY 21ST DECEMBER 2021 Since we first came together for World Childless Week in 2020, the #NomoCrones (nomo = not-mother & 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‘. To find out more about our ‘Gateway Elderwomen’ project and to watch previous sessions, click here. To sign up to our mailing list to make sure you don’t miss the session planned for March 2022, click here. December Solstice 2021: ‘Spiritual Malnutrition’ For December 2021’s Solstice Session, we’re […]

Jody Day interviewed by Laura Behnke for ‘The Life Actually Podcast’ on childlessness across the life course; working to deshame ourselves as part of healing; how understand the grief process helps us deal with all of life’s changes and much much more! (Audio + Transcript)

October 14, 2021 Jody Day 0

[October 2021] Jody Day interviewed by Laura Behnke for ‘The Life Actually Podcast‘ in which we discuss, amongst other things: the data around the numbers of childless/free women, and why it’s on the rise; about shame as a powerful tool of social control; about how not having children means you also won’t get to be a grandmother either; about my own unplanned pregnancy and abortion at 20 and how this is a hidden part of many women’s stories, both mothers and childless women; about how our childhood experience of being mothered may influence our later thoughts about becoming mothers ourselves; […]

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 […]

Celebrating the highs and the lows of 10 years of Gateway Women with The Full Stop Podcast [April 2021]

April 10, 2021 Jody Day 0

For Gateway Women’s 10th Anniversary in April 2021, I was thrilled to be interviewed by Berenice, Sarah and Michael of The Full Stop Podcast on what those ten years have been like, what has changed for me, and for the childless community in that time, and what my hopes and dreams are for the next decade. This is a very honest episode in which I reflect on some of the behind-the-scenes challenges of creating Gateway Women, and why turning it into a financially and culturally sustainable organisation that will outlast me is so important to me. You can find the […]

Childless on International Women’s Day – I see you

March 8, 2021 Jody Day 0

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jody Day (@gatewaywomen) Happy International Women’s Day #IWD to all the #childless and #childfree women who feel unseen and uncelebrated in a #pronatalist society that equates womanhood with motherhood. * I see you and I celebrate you. * Happy International Women’s Day to all the unpartnered women who feel unseen and uncelebrated by a society mired by #singlism (thank you Bella DePaulo) and who, this day, as every day, navigate all of life’s tasks, big and small, without recognition or support. * I see you and […]

What does it take to get through childlessness? Guts, hearts, head, new friends, community, connection and a BIG sense of humour! Jody Day interviewed by Australia’s [un]Ripe Podcast (November 2020)

November 14, 2020 Jody Day 0

In this interview from November 2020, Jody Day (founder of Gateway Women) joins Penny and Jo in an episode for the Australian childless/childfree podcast (un)Ripe. You can listen to the full episode here (transcript below). As well as talking about the early days of Gateway Women and how it grew from a blog to the global organization it’s become, Jody also shares what goes on behind the doors of the amazing Gateway Women private online community, and the massive diversity of its 35+ subgroups covering everything from being a Childless Stepmother or Childless & Single to a group which is […]

Menopausal Mojo: why being post-fertile is yet another taboo to bust!

August 11, 2012 Jody Day 20

This article was written in 2012 Perhaps one of the things that’s surprised me most about coming to terms with my childlessness is how it’s impacted every area of my life: my identity, my dreams and my hopes. And one of the most unexpected shifts has been in my ideas about intimate relationships. I was with my ex-husband for 16 years, and both before and after that had serious, long-term relationships. Really, from the ages of 15-45 I had sex and heteosexual relationships on the brain. And now, aged 48, and four years into accepting that my quest for motherhood […]