Could we ask for World Childless Week to be included in our work diversity calendars?

[hertsmeets]

As the topics for World Childless Week are starting to be announced I wanted to put together a note that people might feel comfortable using in their company or organisation.

What do you think - would you feel comfortable in sending this to your HR manager or rep? should I re-word anything or add anything?

Let me know, it would be great to develop something we feel we could send.

"Dear HR/D&I representative,

I’m writing to ask if we can add World Childless Week (WCW) to our Diversity & Inclusion / organisation awareness calendar. worldchildlessweek.net/

World Childless Week (11-17th September 2023) is an annual event that aims to raise awareness and provide support for the childless not by choice.

1 in 5 women in the UK remain permanently childless*. Of these, it’s estimated that 10% are childfree by choice, 10% are childless due to infertility and 80% childless by circumstance. The Noon.org.uk research found that almost a third of professional women aged 45-60 have no children (60% childless/40% childfree). 1 in 4 men remain permanently childless.

Most organisations don’t realise how many of their staff are non-parents, or why childlessness is a DEIB [diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging] issue that needs their attention.

Complex fertility journeys and menopause are being discussed more widely in the workplace and organisations are beginning to recognise the need for support. However, staff still can’t talk about the experience of involuntary childlessness because it is often not understood, and associated with taboo, shame, and exclusion.

By including World Childless Week in our workplace calendar we can help to raise more awareness, encourage more inclusive discussion, and ensure greater support, particularly for those colleagues who are struggling or grieving childlessness.

Each day highlights a different aspect of the childless experience and draws submissions from around the world. It also hosts free public webinars.

Your support is really appreciated, thank you.

[Name]

* In 2022 the UK Office of National Statistics reported that in 2020, 18% of women had reached the age of 45 without having had children. This is double the rate of their mother’s generation. 1 in 5 women now at midlife and beyond are non-mothers. "

[Koala365]

I think this is excellent. I wonder if it would be correct to say that it also disproportionately affects people who are LBGTQ+ too? I imagine that must be correct as in many cases IVF or surrogacy or adoption would be the only option. And also by including reference to this group if there are any HR /DEI leaders who think for some reason that being childless isn't a diversity and inclusion issue, it would show them that it actually really is especially if you think it through properly and consider who the groups of people are most likely to be affected ie LGBTQ+ and women who were trying to build a career in an unbalanced workplace set up for men, to name but a few!

[hertsmeets Volunteer in reply to Koala365]

That's a really great point - thank you!

[Koala365 in reply to hertsmeets]

Thank you. Do you have a links to the sources you have quoted in the draft letter above? If you could post those too that would be really helpful, especially the Noon.org.uk research statistics as I can't seem to find anything about that on their website but I am probably not looking in the right place. I think it might be even more powerful to include the links to the various sources in footnotes in our emails! Thanks so much for this!

[hertsmeets Volunteer in reply to Koala365]

Apologies, I missed this before - please see the attached links:

World Childless Week worldchildlessweek.net

World Childless Week press release: worldchildlessweek.net/pres...

National Inclusion Week 2023: inclusiveemployers.co.uk/na...

Office for National Statistics (ONS) bit.ly/ONS-2020

USA, National Health Statistics report: cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr...

Noon.org.uk research: eleanormills.substack.com/p...

Noon.org.uk research: eleanormills.substack.com/p...

Dr Robin Hadley research: bit.ly/robinhadley

Manchester Metropolitan University research: bit.ly/fertility-workplace

[Koala365 in reply to hertsmeets]

Great. Thank you! I have got the vLl rolling at my company. Have you sent your email too and if so, how was it received? Hope it went well

[hertsmeets Volunteer in reply to Koala365]

This is fantastic, thank you so much for raising this at your company!

Until fairly recently I was so ashamed of my childlessness I couldn't be honest about it with anyone. But I was becoming so angry inside at the lack of representation and being triggered so often at work, that something changed and the need to speak up became stronger than my embarrassment about it, so I emailed the HR director! She was really nice and arranged to meet, which I was quite surprised about. I talked through the numbers of childless (much larger than anyone recognises because it's never talked about), the grief, shame and stigma of childlessness, the 'bingos' we always get and their impact in closing us down ('why not just adopt' etc). The pro-natal focus at work and how this excludes the childless.

Anyway, as a result the company agreed to add World Childless Week to our organisational calendar and actually promoted it in company channels! That was last year, 2022, and this year they added it and circulated it to over 2000 people, without me even prompting them! That really helped me in reducing the shame I felt about my childlessness, and helped me in coming to terms with my situation.

That also gave me the idea about creating an email that others might be able to use, and I managed to get some help from Jody Day of all people! Jody has helped create a newer version of the email which I posted here. But it is essentially saying the same thing. However we speak about our experience it's important that we can speak about it.

There is still some way to go in the workplace but the more each of us speaks out, the future will be different for those childless who are going to come after us, and hopefully in the medium term, greater awareness will reduce the triggers and exclusion we have to face at work. Thank you so much once again!