Hag. Spinster. Crone. Childless cat lady 🐈⬛ The words have barely changed - and neither has the patriarchal playbook. In this episode, we trace the threads between the women burned as witches and the childfree women demonised today: fear of females outside of men’s control, the suspicion of our time and money, the medical misogyny that came after midwives and still shows up in doctor’s offices to this day. Join us as we get dark, summon the spirits of our long-dead sisters, and gather a coven of powerful childfree women ✨ BBC Radio 4 podcast: Witch Jody Day: The Symbolic Annihilation of Childless Women in Films and Media Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women by Caroline Magennis Guen, Berlin: “People wonder, when left to our own devices, what trouble childfree women get up to.” Roz, UK: “It was all men making decisions about my body.” Monica, Berlin: “I was struggling to find a job, until I started to bring up being childfree in interviews. The results were staggering.” Childfree Stories: My Body, My Choice Podcast: The Devil You Know with Sarah Marshall We are Childfree podcast: Birth Rate Panic! Not our problem. Shop Hag merch on the We are Childfree store Vice: 50-Year-Old French Author Says Women Over 50 Are ‘Too Old’ Helen Parish: “Paltrie Vermin, Cats, Mise, Toads, and Weasils”: Witches, Familiars, and Human-Animal Interactions in the English Witch Trials Come see us at Storyhouse Childless in September in the UK! We’ll be giving a keynote speech about the birth rate panic, hosting panels on ageing without children, creating community, and childfree men - and we’d love to see you there. Grab your weekend pass here. Support our mission of celebrating childfree lives by becoming a Dolly Patron. You’ll get full-length episodes of the pod, access to all our beautiful portraits, exclusive BTS from our journey, and more! Follow We are Childfree on Substack, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn. And find out more at wearechildfree.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wearechildfree.substack.com/subscribe