Motherhood or otherwise is a key issue in terms of women's identity and it is important to consider motherhood and non-motherhood as a difference in women's lives alsongside differences such as age, sexuality, ethnicity, class and so on. Hierarchies of motherhood - notions of who should mother, when and in what social and economic circumstances - affect non-mothers as well as mothers and continuums of mothehood and non-motherhood overlap. Gayle Letherby explores the complexities that all of this implies and entails.