London Inc. Winter 2025 - 10

Upfront Workplace
CHANGING
THE EQUATION
Child-free women
still face biases and
assumptions, especially
in the workplace. A new
online platform aims to
change that
AS A CORPORATE lawyer, business
law group partner and the chief
privacy officer at Lerners LLP, Alysia
Christiaen makes her living dealing
with tough, demanding questions. But
there is one question that throws her
every time - the one she refers to as
" that damn question. "
" Do you have any kids? "
Christiaen recognizes that for many
people it is posed simply as an effort to
break the ice, to get to know her, to find
commonality. " No, none for me - I'm
child-free, " is her usual response. But
it is a question that has always made
her feel uncomfortable, and it turns
out there are a lot of women in the
workplace who feel the same way.
This past October, Christiaen
launched Child-Free Women in the
Workplace (www.cfw2.com), an online
community for professional women
without children to share their experiences.
But more than that, the platform
also aims to raise awareness of
the child-free perspective, to promote
workplace policies that are inclusive
of child-free workers and to provide
resources for people of all genders
who are child-free by choice or circumstance,
and for those who may be
deciding whether to have children.
There seems to be a societal expectation
that all women want children,
says Christiaen. But many, like her,
are child-free by choice. " I feel fulfilled
and happy, and enjoy the flexibility
and freedom, but I worry that I will be
judged as selfish, career-focused or less
10 | londonincmagazine.ca | WINTER 2025
Alysia Christiaen
PHOTO: ONE-12 PHOTOGRAPHY
than for not having kids. "
At its heart, CFW2 is about changing
the equation of woman-equals-mother,
Christiaen explains, and giving voice
to the fact that it is not a given that
motherhood will be part of a woman's
identity. " We should be celebrating
people's choices, whatever they may
be, " she says.
To do so, Christiaen believes it is
necessary to reshape perceptions to
create more inclusive, understanding
workplaces, and to address workplace
policies and customs that, by design
or not, treat people with and without
children differently. By way of examples,
she points to how workers with
children are often given priority for
booking holiday time; how child-free
workers are often the first to be tapped
http://www.cfw2.com http://www.londonincmagazine.ca
London Inc. Winter 2025

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