Women, thy Name is Womb: Marginalization of voluntary childfree women in feminist performance literature.

This thesis examines voluntary childfree women's lack of representation in modern feminist theatre. Pronatalist ideology within North American cultural feminism is explored in the context of childfree marginalization, and is applied to performance literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In order to counteract discordance between mother and non-mother narratives, and directly address some of the associate stigmas of childfree women, an original theatrical script accompanies the research components as a conceptual application of this research. The script highlights the reproductive complexity of female voices, breaking down the notions of universalism and binary schema that sustain cultural feminism's essentialist arguments. Illustrating the interconnected gap between ideology, experience, and representation gives voluntary childfree women a subject position, and highlights the importance of inclusion within the realm of feminist ideology. Without the representation of a growing demographic of childfree women, feminism cannot hope to expand the definition of female identity and expression. --Leaf ii.