The number of women who remain childfree is on the rise, as documented by demographic statistics. Yet, because research on women in the workplace has so far been focused on documenting the motherhood penalty in the workplace, childfree women have remained almost invisible. Relying on empirical data and theoretical arguments, the present paper gathers evidence that deviating from the motherhood mandate may have negative consequences for women's work–life. An integrative framework is offered which posits that childfree women's characteristics and features of the workplace interact in a unique and potentially underestimated way to impact childfree women's quality of work–life. Childfree women's characteristics include age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and social class. Features of the workplace pertain to the culture of the organization and job characteristics. Quality of work–life encompasses career outcomes (i.e., pay and position, hiring and evaluation) and working conditions (i.e., work–life balance, workplace incivility). Drawing on the proposed framework, I suggest several research avenues and consider the challenges of exploring the issue of childfree women's work–life within interdisciplinary research teams, and from an intersectional perspective.

中文翻译：

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孕产妇墙的背后：对无子女工作妇女的隐性反弹

人口统计数据表明，保持无子女状态的妇女人数正在增加。但是，由于迄今为止对工作场所中的妇女的研究都集中在记录工作场所中的产妇刑罚，因此，没有孩子的妇女几乎仍然是看不见的。依靠经验数据和理论依据，本文收集了证据，表明偏离母职规定可能对妇女的工作生活产生负面影响。提供了一个综合框架，该框架假定无子女的妇女的特征和工作场所的特征以独特且可能被低估的方式相互作用，从而影响无子女的妇女的工作生活质量。无子女妇女的特征包括年龄，性取向，种族和社会阶层。工作场所的特征与组织的文化和工作特征有关。工作生活质量包括职业成果（即薪资和职位，雇用和评估）和工作条件（即工作与生活的平衡，工作场所的不友好）。在提出的框架的基础上，我提出了几种研究途径，并从交叉角度研究了跨学科研究团队探索无子女妇女的工作-生活问题所面临的挑战。