Many of us have experienced challenges at work or in organisations where our colleagues, the culture or communications are overtly 'family' focused and completely exclude the childless experience. As a result we can feel triggered, shamed, invisible and outsiders.
Some of us feel we want to speak up but don't know where to start. It can also be difficult for organisations to know what they can do to help. One suggestion is to ask for World Childless Week to be included in diversity and inclusion calendars (or equivalent).
I've put together a draft email, with a lot of input from Jody Day, which you can use as is, or adapt it to fit what you want to say. I really hope it enables us to start these conversations in the workplace, to raise more awareness, recognition and inclusivity of our experience.
Let us know if you send the note, and how you get on, or if you have any more ideas about how to raise awareness. Best of luck, our wonderful childless community stands alongside you! Thank you.
'Request for Inclusion of WCW in our workplace calendar' - Email:
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"Dear [name],
Request for Inclusion in our workplace calendar.
I’m writing to ask if we can add World Childless Week (WCW) to our workplace calendar.
In 2023, World Childless Week runs from Monday 11th to Sunday 17th September.
World Childless Week has taken place each September since 2017 to raise awareness and support the childless not by choice community. Set up by British childless woman, Stephanie Joy Phillips, it is supported by a team of prominent voices in the global childless community as volunteer Ambassadors.
Each day highlights a different aspect of the childless experience and draws submissions from around the world. It also hosts free public webinars, curated around themes for each of the seven days of the week. These topics change each year.
As a commitment to creating truly inclusive workplaces, Inclusive Employers, who run National Inclusion Week have added World Childless Week to their diversity calendar for 2023.
In the UK in 2020, the ONS reported that 1 in 5 women remain non-parents permanently, double that of their mother’s generation. Estimates of the numbers of women within this who are childless by choice (childfree), vary from 6% to 40% but despite the increasing media attention towards the childfree, the majority of women without children are involuntarily childless. In the UK workplace, the Noon.org.uk research found that almost a third of professional women aged 45-60 have no children (60% childless/40% childfree). And whilst the focus on non-parenthood tends to focus on women, the numbers of men without children are similar or even higher.
Complex fertility journeys are being discussed more widely in the workplace and organisations are beginning to recognise the need to support these issues. However, the experience of involuntary childlessness remains hidden and unrepresented because it is associated with shame and stigma. As a result, the childless and childfree experience is excluded in the workplace, and HR and line-managers who may be experiencing these issues may yet be expected to offer support around fertility treatments, maternity and parenthood.
By including World Childless Week in our workplace calendar we can help to raise awareness, encourage more inclusive discussion, and provide support for those colleagues who are grieving childlessness, or who feel excluded from workplace culture. We can help to ensure that everyone feels valued in the organisation. Focusing on building a more inclusive culture also helps to attract and retain a wider diversity of talent.
Thank you for your support. Please contact me if I can help provide further information.
Best regards
[Name]
References:
1. World Childless Week worldchildlessweek.net
2. World Childless Week press release: worldchildlessweek.net/pres...
3. National Inclusion Week 2023: inclusiveemployers.co.uk/na...
4. Office for National Statistics (ONS) bit.ly/ONS-2020
5. USA, National Health Statistics report: cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr...
6. Noon.org.uk research: eleanormills.substack.com/p...
7. Noon.org.uk research: eleanormills.substack.com/p...
8. Dr Robin Hadley research: bit.ly/robinhadley
9. Manchester Metropolitan University research: bit.ly/fertility-workplace
