JODY DAY (1964) is the English/Irish founder (2011) of Gateway Women, the global support & advocacy network for childless women, and is often described as the founder of the ‘childless movement’. An author, two-times TEDx speaker, thought leader and integrative psychotherapist, she’s known for her best-selling Living the Life Unexpected: How to Find Hope, Meaning and a Fulfilling Future Without Children (PanMac 2016/2020) and increasingly for her popular Substack, ‘Gateway Elderwomen’ which explores the adventure of elderhood without motherhood. Jody’s been a World Childless Week Ambassador since its inception in 2017, and was chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2013 & as a UK Digital Woman of the Year in 2021. She was also a founding and former board member at the UK Charity Ageing Without Children, and is a former Fellow in Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School. She is currently training as a Work That Reconnects Facilitator, planning to weave that into her broader Gateway Elderwomen project focused on disrupting ageism, and creating local, intergenerational, mutual-aid communities of care for those ageing without children. She lives in West Cork, rural Ireland and hopes to finish her first novel soon. She is managed by a small white terrier called Parsnip.
website: www.gateway-women.com direct email: jody@gateway-women.com Jody's 'Gateway Elderwomen' essays: https://jodyday.substack.com/ linked-in: @jodyday instagram @gatewaywomen & @apprenticecrone bluesky: @gatewaywomen.bsky.social Jody's monthly newsletter: bit.ly/jody-list private online community: www.gateway-women.com/community free download of intro & chapter 1 of Jody's book: bit.ly/free-ltlu
CLICK HERE FOR JODY’S PROFESSIONAL ONE-PAGE BACKGROUNDER & HEADSHOTS.
SONIA SUMAN (UK) is the Community Manager for the Childless Collective online community, (formerly known as the Gateway Women Online Community, and now under the stewardship of Katy Seppi’s Childless Collective). Sonia’s professional background is in academia; she has a PhD in Renaissance Literature and has taught at both school and university levels. She also worked within the wellbeing team supporting undergraduates and postgraduates at a major British university. This led her to study and train to teach mindfulness and self-compassion, which has been a huge part of her own healing journey too. Sonia is passionate about community, and became a host for local Gateway gatherings in the Worcestershire (UK) area in 2018 and, realising the difference it made to her life having a local network of childless friends, she has gradually got more and more involved with Gateway Women’s work to the point that she’s now an invaluable part of both the Gateway and Childless Collective teams. You can contact her directly at hello@childlesscollective.com
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