When Jody Day published her first post on her new blog Gateway Women over 11 years ago, little could she have known what response her cry into the void would create… An online mention came the very next day and within just a few months she was featured in an interview in The Guardian which went viral and is still being read today. Her book, Living the Life Unexpected, self-published in 2013, was then published by Bluebird/PanMacmillan in 2016, with a fully revised 2nd edition coming out in 2020 – it is considered the ‘go-to’ book on dealing with involuntary childlessness by both professionals and individuals alike.
Jody has created countless resources and events for childless women through her Gateway Women network, including a much-loved online community, global and local social gatherings, online courses, events and masterclasses and continues to be interviewed in the media and on many influential podcasts.
A psychotherapist and former Fellow in Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School, Jody is considered the global thought leader on female involuntary childlessness and is an Ambassador to World Childless Week and PLICA (Australia), as well as sitting on the Advisory Panel for the New Legacy Institute in the US, working to create systemic change for non-parents in the workplace and beyond. Sometimes referred to as ‘the Elder Stateswoman’ of childlessness, and less often, but more memorably as the ‘Beyonce of childlessness!’, many consider her work to have been foundational in creating the ‘childless movement’.
From this decade-long perspective of personal healing and social advocacy, Jody will share the ten most important things that have helped her to create a meaningful life after the dream of motherhood died, including her evolving more ‘childfree’ perspective, one which she believes is part of her transition into becoming a ‘conscious childless elderwoman’ and will form part of the next decade of her work and hopefully change the narrative around non-grandparenthood, just as her work has changed that around non-motherhood.
This talk will be helpful to those who are new to childlessness, those who have been coming to terms with it for some time, and those who are at peace with their non-parenthood status, whether they chose it, or it chose them.
This event will include a Q&A.
