Who’s Afraid of Childless Cat Ladies? An award-winning Lakehead researcher has some answers.
“The Women’s Health Scholars Award makes it easier to focus on my work because it affords financial stability,” Erika says. Recently, the award funding allowed her to present her research at the 33rd International Congress of Psychology in Prague. “To see my research gaining traction at that level is wonderful!” When she’s at home, Erika enjoys spending time with her beautiful cat Severus. (Photo courtesy of Erika Puiras)
Lazy. Selfish. Immature. Abnormal. Those are some of the insults lobbed at women who choose not to have children.
Erika Puiras was only 24 years old when she became the target of these prejudices.
“Some of the people in my life began making snide comments and pressuring me to have kids,” she says. This was in 2021 after Erika had completed undergraduate and master’s degrees in psychology at Lakehead and was about to begin her PhD studies in clinical psychology.
“I got fed up with the stigma and decided to do something about it by using my PhD dissertation to study the biases experienced by childfree women and the impact they have on women’s mental health,” Erika says. “I have great respect for parents, but that doesn’t mean that other life choices aren’t equally valid.”
She wasn’t sure what kind of reaction her research would garner because this form of stigmatization wasn’t really on the public’s radar at that time, either culturally or academically. “It was a leap into the unknown—I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to recruit enough participants for my research study,” Erika says.
Her topic choice, though, proved to be prophetic—Erika has tapped into a divisive moment in a changing society. Online or offline, it’s hard to turn around without witnessing heated debates about “childless cat ladies.” This discourse, for many, is received as an assault on women’s autonomy.
2024 Women’s Health Scholars Award for Groundbreaking Research
Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care recognized Erika’s research in 2023 with a prestigious Women’s Health Scholars Award. Now, Lakehead is proud to announce that Erika’s Women’s Health Scholars Award has been renewed for 2024. The purpose of the award is to help Ontario attract and retain exceptional scholars who will make the province a leader in effective health services and health care for women.
“Only a handful of these awards are granted each year, with fierce competition from across the province and from much larger universities,” says Lakehead’s Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences Dean Dr. Mirella Stroink. “It’s a reflection of Erika’s outstanding research track record and the support of Lakehead’s doctoral program that she has received a Women’s Health Scholars Award.”
“Women’s decisions to have or not have a family have real consequences in terms of social judgment,” Dr. Stroink adds, “and recent political rhetoric has been demonizing women who don’t have children.”
Punished and Dismissed for Not Being Mothers
Erika is now analyzing research data gathered from studies she conducted that surveyed over 1,300 participants from across Canada and the United States, as well as from Thunder Bay. She describes the findings that are emerging as disturbing.
“Women are being subjected to physical and verbal abuse from family members—and people outside their family—because they are childfree,” Erika says. Many study respondents also faced both workplace discrimination and stigmatization by their health-care providers “Women frequently mention being denied medical care—doctors refusing to give them IUDs and other forms of birth control they’ve requested or refusing to sterilize them without their partners’ consent, which often lowers their trust in health care providers.”
There was a common message that Erika heard again and again from the study participants. “They wanted people to know that their worth as women—and as human beings—shouldn’t be defined by whether or not they have children.”