Social pressure to be a mother toward academic women without children

Abstract

This article identifies the main actors who express social pressure to be mother, as well as the different linguistic forms it takes, and it exposes two coping strategies used by academic women from a gender perspective. This study takes a qualitative approach with an intentional sample of five academic women from public universities in Northern Mexico. Some results suggest that there are diverse actors who pressure women to be mother such as family, colleagues at work, friends and even strange people. For some academic women, the feeling of pressure was denied, however, the narratives expose how such demands are naturalized and incorporated in their own discourse. Finally, confrontation and re-interpretation were the two main copping strategies used by those women.