This article presents part of the results of a study developed with middle-class women from Rio de Janeiro from different age groups who do not want to have children. We used in-depth interviews and the resulting texts were submitted to a discourse analysis. We focused here on the data related to what it means to be a woman. According to them, although the ideal woman in social discourse is the one who conciliates professional fulfillment and motherhood, something considered to be very hard, they believe feminine identity is now going through a transition period in which the traditional models of the woman-mother and of the woman-mother-professional are being substituted by more fluid contemporary models in which women may and should follow their own paths and make their own choices and even change their options, so as to accomplish new dreams, desires and aspirations.
woman; non-motherhood; identity