Abstract
A time of heightened anxiety arises for women who have careers and wish to be mothers around the age of 30. It seems that for this group of women, the experience of choosing when to become mothers is imbued with anxiety rich with existential themes such as, choice, freedom, meaning, temporality, mortality and finitude. In this chapter, the author reflects on their own experience of this choice while also speaking to another woman in a similar situation. A depiction of the lived experience of a woman, with a career, trying to “have-it-all” was created. The research found that the anxiety experienced could broadly be divided across the existential themes of: uncertainty, meaning and temporality, and furthermore across the four existential worlds.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baird, D. T., Collins, J., Egozcue, J., Evers, L. H., Gianaroli, L., Leridon, H., et al. (2005). Fertility and Ageing. Human Reproduction Update,11(3), 261–276. https://doi.org/10.1093/humupd/dmi006.
Boss, D. M., & Diethelm, O. (1949). Meaning and Content of Sexual Perversions: A Daseinanalytic Approach to the Psychopathology of the Phenomenon of Love. Trans. L. Lewis Abell. New York: Grune and Stratton. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Meaning_and_Content_of_Sexual_Perversion.html?id=QpXHXwAACAAJ&pgis=1.
Cain Miller, C., & Alderman, L. (2014, December 12). Why U.S. Women Are Leaving Jobs Behind. The New York Times.
Chodorow, N., & Contratto, S. (1992). The Fantasy of the Perfect Mother. In B. Thorne & M. Yalom (Eds.), Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Cohn, H. W. (2002). Heidegger and the Roots of Existential Therapy. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
de Beauvoir, S. (1949). The Second Sex. London: Random House.
Dillaway, H., & Pare, E. (2008). Locating Mothers: How Cultural Debates About Stay-at-Home Versus Working Mothers Define Women and Home. Journal of Family Issues,29(4), 437–464. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X07310309.
Freud, S. (1905).Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Se, 7.
Friedan, B. (2001). The Feminine Mystique (18th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.
Greer, G. (1970). The Female Eunuch. London: HarperCollins.
Gurley Brown, H. (1982). Having It All: Love, Success, Sex, Money Even If You’re Starting with Nothing. New York: Simon & Shuster.
Heidegger, M. (1927). Being and Time. Trans. J. Macquarrie & E. S. Robinson. London: Harper & Row.
Hewlett, S. A. (2004). Creating a Life: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Having a Baby and a Career. New York: Miramax Books. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=FFDyZDP-9mIC&pgis=1.
Ireland, M. S. (1993). Reconceiving Women: Separating Motherhood from Female Identity. New York: Guilford Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=UaeVxWNUoJYC&pgis=1.
Jackson, S. (2006). Interchanges: Gender, Sexuality and Heterosexuality—The Complexity (and Limits) of Heteronormativity. Feminist Theory,7, 105–121.
Jacques, H. A., & Radtke, H. L. (2012). Constrained by Choice: Young Women Negotiate the Discourses of Marriage and Motherhood. Feminism & Psychology,22(4), 443–461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353512442929.
Jaspers, K. (1951). The Way to Wisdom. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Klay, M. A. (2009). Contemporary Women Turning 30. Dissertation Abstracts Internations: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 69(10B), 6419.
Korula, G., & Mohan, S. K. (2010). Fertility and Age. Journal of Human Reproductive Science,3(3), 121–123.
Langdridge, D., & Barker, M. (2013). Relationship Therapy with Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans Clients. In E. van Deurzen & S. Iacovou (Eds.), Existential Perspectives on Relationship Therapy. London: Routledge.
Lukas, C. (2006). The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing.
Macko, L., & Rubin, K. (2004). Midlife Crisis at 30. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Books.
Madankumar, R., Cohen, M. A., & Brenner, S. H. (2003). Age and Fertility. Primary Care Update for OB/GYNS,10(6), 270–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1068-607X(03)00066-0.
Meyers, D. (2001). The Rush to Motherhood—Pronatalist Discourse and Women’s Autonomy. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society, 26(3), 735–773.
Navot, D., & Bergh, P. A. (1991). Poor Oocyte Quality Rather than Implantation Failure as a Cause of Age Related Decline in Female Fertility. Lancet,337(8754), 1375–1378.
Peck, S. (2014, October 27). Egg Freezing: The Perfect 30th Birthday Gift for Women. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11188889/Egg-freezing-the-perfect-30th-birthday-gift-for-women.html.
Polt, R. (1999). Heidegger: An Introduction. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Raspberry, K. A., & Skinner, D. (2011 [1982]). Negotiating Desires and Options: How Mothers Who Carry the Fragile X Gene Experience Reproductive Decisions. Social Science & Medicine, 72(6), 992–998. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.01.010.
Rich, A. (1986). Of Woman Born. New York, London: W.W. Norton.
Rich, A. C. (2003 [1980]). Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence. Journal of Women’s History, 15(3), 11–48. https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2003.0079.
Rowland, R. (1992). Living Laboratories: Women and Reproductive Technology. London: Cedar.
Sandberg, S. (2010). Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Lean_In.html?id=y9_mxZLYiiMC&pgis=1.
Segal, H. G., DeMeis, D. K., Wood, G. A., & Smith, H. L. (2001). Assessing Future Possible Selves by Gender and Socioeconomic Status Using the Anticipated Life History Measure. Journal of Personality,69(1), 57–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.00136.
Sevon, E. (2005). Timing Motherhood: Experiencing and Narrating the Choice to Become a Mother. Feminism & Psychology,15(4), 461–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959-353505057619.
Slaughter, A.-M. (2012). Why Women Still Can’t Have It All. The Atlantic. Retrieved 23 July 2013, from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why.
Tardy, R. W. (2000). “But I Am a Good Mom”: The Social Construction of Motherhood through Health-Care Conversations. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography,29(4), 433–473. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124100129023963.
Tone, A. (2001). Devices & Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America. New York: Hill and Wang.
Tropp, L. (2006). “Faking a Sonogram”: Representations of Motherhood on Sex and the City. The Journal of Popular Culture,39(5), 861–877. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00309.x.
van Deurzen, E. (2014). Structural Existential Analysis (SEA): A Phenomenological Research Method for Counselling Psychology. Counselling Psychology Review,29(2), 70–83.
Warnock, M. (1970). Existentialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Weixel-Dixon, K., & Strasser, F. (2005). Time and Purpose. In E. van Deurzen & C. Arnold-Baker (Eds.), Existential Perspectives on Human Issues. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Woollett, A., & Boyle, M. (2000). Reproduction, Women’s Lives and Subjectivities. Feminism & Psychology,10(3), 307–311. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353500010003001.
Zornberg, A. G. (2009). The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious (Google eBook). New York: Random House LLC. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=8UaQ4eyOFzEC&pgis=1.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Magnus, N. (2020). Trying to “Have-It-All” at 30; Timing Motherhood. In: Arnold-Baker, C. (eds) The Existential Crisis of Motherhood. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56499-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56499-5_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-56498-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-56499-5
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)