World Childless Week is both an enriching community and a wonderful resource. I am honoured to be the 2025-2026 Champion for an organisation that values and promotes the rich and complex life stories of those of us who are childless not by choice.
Having worked as a nursery nurse prior to the miscarriage (in the early 1980s) of my, to my knowledge, one and only pregnancy, one and only baby, I gave up my job and listlessly, sometimes desperately, wandered through my own life feeling that I had no purpose and no future. It was the support of others, mostly my mum, and (when looking for something to fill a bit of time) finding Sociology that saved me.
An A’Level was followed by undergraduate and postgraduate study and 35 years (so far) of teaching, researching, writing and mentoring. I have undertaken research and written much on the experience of those who do and those who do not mother (and father) and the implications and impact of this. My focus of my PhD (1990s) was infertility and involuntary childlessness and I interviewed and corresponded with more than 80 individuals, mostly women but some men too. I always reflect on, and often include, my own experience in my academic work.
Fifteen years ago I became interested in alternative ways of telling life stories and began writing fiction and memoir (for examples see www.abctales.com/user/gletherby) and running workshops for others interested in doing similar www.gayle-letherby.co.uk In all my writings I challenge simplistic definitions and misunderstandings, which recently has included those surrounding the experience of ‘growing older’ as a childless not by choice individual. I am both excited and honoured to be a World Childless Week Champion and look forward to working further within this vibrant and enriching community.
Professor Gayle Letherby, BA (Hons), PhD, FAcSS
Lifetime Contribution in Autoethnography Award 2023
ICAE Film Award 2024 https://youtu.be/n1qbhq6oWPI