Clodagh Finn: Women without children face the brunt of bias

For many years, it felt as if the world didn’t quite know what to do with a woman without children

Nicole Louie, author of Others Like Me: the Lives of Women Without Children. Picture: Amanda Braide

I used to dread the question, “Do you have children?” Not because I felt bad about answering “no”, but because of the awkward gap in conversation that often followed.

There was a time when I’d rush in to fill it, with a babbled platitude or a ridiculous mention of a family pet to show that I am, in fact, capable of nurturing a living creature.