‘Childlessness in the workplace ethnodrama’
As part of our two-year Leverhulme Trust funded research project on complex fertility journeys and employment, the research team at Manchester Metropolitan University has been working with Creative Consultant Jenny Berry to produce a number of ethnodrama outputs/scripts to illustrate key themes from our research, using examples and words taken from our interviews with 80 men and women with lived experience of complex fertility journeys, as well as 20 line managers and fertility counsellors.
The aim of ethnodrama is to bring research findings to audiences who would not necessarily read academic outputs such as journal articles, and to bring the themes to life, and encourage a more emotional reaction.
The intention is that the collection of outputs/scripts will be used to raise awareness of complex fertility journey and employment issues in different stakeholder groups, including HR professionals and line managers in organisations (being used in training sessions, etc.)
The following ethnodrama audio clip highlights the experience of an employee at the end of a complex fertility journey, who is navigating involuntary childlessness in the workplace.