An Exploration of Being Childfree at Work: Challenges and Opportunities

Workers without children represent a growing yet persistently overlooked population in contemporary workplaces. This introductory article to the Special Issue on childfree workers establishes the conceptual rationale for this collection, arguing that the dominant work‐family paradigm has marginalized the experiences of those without children by conflating ‘work‐family' with ‘work‐life'. We adopt the term childfree to resist deficit framings, while acknowledging important distinctions between voluntary and involuntary childlessness alongside the intersecting influences of gender, race, sexuality, and class. Drawing on demographic trends, particularly across Western contexts, we highlight the urgency of enhanced theoretical and empirical attention to this population. We introduce and synthesize four empirical and conceptual paper contributions that comprise this Special Issue, addressing infertility, pregnancy loss, voluntary childfreeness, and prospective motherhood penalties, collectively demonstrating that childfree experiences are shaped by intersecting systems of moral normativity, organizational pronatalist assumptions, and structural inequality. We conclude by outlining key directions for future research and offering practical guidance for organizations seeking to foster more equitable and inclusive workplaces across diverse life circumstances.