The One Where I Talk To Author & Academic, Caroline Magennis

Spinsterhood Reimagined

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In this week’s episode, I’m talking to the fabulous Caroline Magennis.

Caroline is an Associate Professor in Contemporary Literature at the University of Salford. She’s also an author, and her brand new book from Icon Books, which came out in May, is called Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women.

She lives in north-west England and is happily childfree.

Topics that Caroline & I cover are:

• how it never really occurred to Caroline to have children;
• how for many people, it’s a feeling rather than a decision, to not have kids;
• how much women’s experience of the stigma varies according to their cultural and socio-economic backgrounds;
• how people used to tell Caroline that she would change her mind about having kids;
• how the people who ask the most prying questions tend to not have very much going on in their own lives;
• why Caroline used the word ‘Harpy’ in the title of her book;
• the cultural messaging around childless women that motivated Caroline to write the book;
• the older women Caroline interviewed who didn’t regret not having kids, and who had led wonderful lives;
• why Caroline wanted to look into the nuance of childless women’s experiences;
• how almost all of Caroline’s interviewees spoke to the freedom of not having children;
• how there is a pressure on childless women to ‘do something amazing’, in order to justify their existence;
• why loneliness isn’t just reserved for single, childfree women;
• the different ways women without kids describe themselves;
• why being childfree is the least interesting thing about us!
• how Caroline’s Irish upbringing affected her experience of not having children.

Follow Caroline on Instagram:
@drmagennis

Buy the book on Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Harpy-Manifesto-Childfree-Caroline-Magennis-ebook/dp/B0CT7B2JYF

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