Abstract:
Positioning women in a situation where womanhood is pegged to motherhood has
resulted in stigma towards involuntary childless women. These women are viewed as
outsiders in their communities and certain ideologies propagating their discrimination
are spread. As much as men who are childless are stigmatised, women are expected to
consider motherhood their most crucial life goal and are hence subjected to more stigma
if they cannot deliver. Language has contributed significantly to stigmatizing and
stereotyping the childless women and lowering their esteem. This study focused on the
linguistic stigma that involuntary childless women in the Gĩkῦyῦ community encounter
and the linguistic strategies that contribute to the stigmatisation of these women. The
study also looked at attempts by the childless women to counter stigmatising discourse
against them and redefine womanhood. Fairclough and Leeuwen's Critical Discourse
Analysis theory (CDA) and Wodak’s and KhosraviNik's Discourse Historical
Approach (DHA), a branch of CDA were applied. The ideas of Connell's Hegemonic
Masculinity theory are also applied, particularly the concepts of gender and power.
Purposive sampling was used to select twenty-four involuntary childless women and
twelve men. Data were collected in Tetu sub-county of Nyeri County, Kenya in the
villages of Kĩandu, Mathakwainĩ, Ndῦgamano, and Kĩgogoinĩ. The study employed
focus group discussions (FGDs) and interviews to collect the data which was audio
recorded. The data were analysed using qualitative methods in the light of the theories
identified. The study found that the Gĩkῦyῦ community follow deeply rooted gendered
ideologies inscribed in men’s and women’s consciousness from birth. These ideologies
impart a sense of self and identity that cuts across social and class divisions. As
pronatalists, they hold common stereotypical ideologies which lead to viewing
involuntary childless women as deficient and deviant. Based on these ideologies,
language is used to stigmatise involuntary childless women through weaponised
linguistic strategies and a host of topoi. The study also discovered that by giving voice
to grief, some involuntary childless women redefined themselves and, in some cases,
set themselves apart from other involuntary childless women by using the stereotypes
applied to them. The findings of this study confirm the assertion of CDA-DHA that
language use determines how people view themselves and the world around them. The
involuntary childless women, for example, are referred to and view themselves in
relation to their childlessness, though some are able to rebrand themselves. The findings
of the study have advanced the application of CDA and Hegemonic Masculinity theory
and demonstrated the power of language in constituting and contesting the reality.
