It is broadly accepted, if not always applauded, that in the Western world today, women may do with their lives pretty much whatever they darn well want. In many countries including this one, they can now serve on the frontline in war. So why, when society has become so relaxed about a multiplicity of female roles and identities, does it still somewhat baulk when we reject just one in particular - that of motherhood?

Forget the idea that your womb is your business. We may have moved on since the days when childless women were quite often regarded as witches, but progress has perhaps not been as great as we’d like to think.

It’s a seam Nicola Moriarty mines thoroughly in her new novel, Those Other Women, a title that speaks to the incomprehensible “otherness” of those who make choices that are different from our own. In the book, Moriarty’s fifth, two friends who have opted for childlessness create a Facebook group for women like them who want a life without kids. Set up in opposition to their local “mums online” group, “Non-mums online,” brings together those who’ve grown tired of watching their colleagues fall pregnant and take months off work, only to return with their flexible working requests and smug smiles.