On the Choices of Being a Woman

'An exhilarating, genre-defying read' Observer

'Brilliant, brave, beautiful' Elif Shafak

'Absolutely sensational' Michael Cashman, CBE

In a world where women have more choices than ever, society nevertheless continues to exert the stigma and pressures of less enlightened times when it comes to having children. We define women by whether they embrace or reject motherhood; whether they can give birth or not. Behavioural Scientist Pragya Agarwal uses her own varied experiences and choices as a woman of South Asian heritage to examine the broader societal, historical and scientific factors that drive how we think and talk about motherhood.

She looks at how women's bodies have been monitored and controlled through history, and how this shapes the political constructs of motherhood and womanhood now. Extremely open in its honesty and meticulously researched, (M)otherhood probes themes of infertility, childbirth and reproductive justice, and makes a powerful and urgent argument for the need to tackle society's obsession with women's bodies and fertility.