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When Choosing Not to Have Children Results in Moral Disadvantage at Work: Exploring the Workplace Politics of (Mis)recognition of Voluntary Childfreeness

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  • Anne Theunissen

Abstract

Although norms that underlie disadvantages of parenthood at work and childfreeness in society have been investigated, those that shape inequality mechanisms related to childfreeness in the workplace are largely overlooked. This negligence marginalizes childfree voices and hampers efforts to broaden our understanding of workplace (dis)advantage. This study aims to investigate how inequality mechanisms generated by moral norms operate in relation to voluntary childfreeness at work. Twenty interviews were analyzed using a Butlerian lens to reveal the workplace politics of (mis)recognition of voluntary childfreeness. The findings illustrate how various ethical frameworks generate marginalization and ethical violence. They allow certain parenting and childfree subjects to be recognized while leading to the misrecognition of others. This study contributes to the literature by illustrating how the moral norm of collective devotion to parenting gives parenting subjects some flexibility to deviate from workplace availability expectations while partially transferring their availability demands to childfree subjects. Furthermore, it highlights the absence of a moral framework that enables childfreeness to be celebrated and supported at work in the same way as parenthood and reveals how societal processes of stigmatization of childfreeness are reproduced in the workplace. Finally, it adds the term “reproductive” to the concept of the heterosexual matrix and coins nonreproductive queerness.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Theunissen, 2026. "When Choosing Not to Have Children Results in Moral Disadvantage at Work: Exploring the Workplace Politics of (Mis)recognition of Voluntary Childfreeness," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 789-800, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:33:y:2026:i:3:p:789-800
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.70080
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    References listed on IDEAS

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