The aim of this article is to overview women’s experiences in view of social expectations about having children. Such expectations are frequently implied in questions about procreation plans. Since the procreative experience was considered by the author as a process, it was possible to reconstruct changes in the meaning that the researched women ascribed to such questions at different stages of this experience, i.e. from the period prior to trying for a child, through the initial stage of trying to conceive, to the diagnostic stage until being given a diagnosis of infertility. At the stage prior to trying for a child, standing in front of the mirror of social expectations, the women saw themselves in the role of future mothers. At the initial stage of trying to conceive, seeing themselves in the mirror, the interviewed women saw themselves as pregnant women in near future. At the diagnostic stage until being given a diagnosis of infertility, the women saw only their uncertain future, i.e. themselves who wanted to have children very much, but were no longer certain whether they would become mothers.

The main purpose of the article is to establish the level of knowledge about fertility among female students of the University of Zielona Góra. The presented analyses used part of the empirical material from the project “The role of fertility assumptions in the formation of procreative intentions” carried out on a representative sample of full-time female students of the University of Zielona Góra. The respondents have the highest level of fertility knowledge related to changes in women’s reproductive abilities with age. However, it should be noted that their awareness in this aspect is rather medium. For the most part, they correctly identify the age at which the woman is most fertile and the age at which her ability to conceive is significantly reduced. However, the vast majority of respondents are convinced that the process of reducing the ability of women to become pregnant begins later than in reality. As for the other two dimensions of fertility knowledge – the dimension related to estimating the chances of getting pregnant and the dimension related to infertility – the women are characterised by their low or average level. Most of the respondents overestimate the chances of pregnancy of a young woman (up to 25 years old), who had unprotected intercourse at the time of ovulation and a woman who, aged 25–30, had unprotected intercourse regularly during a period of one year. More than half of female students are aware of the scale of infertility in Poland, but at the same time most of them overestimate the effectiveness of in vitro fertilisation. The results obtained are similar to those obtained by researchers from other countries. Therefore, it is necessary to postulate including to the educational program the knowledge about the specificity of the human body, which is characterised by limited ability to conceive a child and changes in the fertility level of women appearing with age.

The research presented in the article focused on negative prescriptive stereotypes of femininity and masculinity. The aim of the research performed was to identify definitions of non-femininity and non-masculinity of student women. The study was conducted using a diagnostic survey method and a self-completed survey questionnaire on a randomly selected sample of 1152 female students. Statistical processing was performed in the PS IMAGO statistical package. Analysis revealed that female students’ definitions of non-femininity and non-masculinity mainly reflect the traditional model of femininity and masculinity, but attitudes towards the obligatory validity of this model are waning.

The aim of the research was to establish the relationship between the socio-cultural gender of the surveyed women and their most important life goals that they would like to achieve in the future. Some of the empirical material from the research project 'The role of fertility assumptions in shaping procreation intentions' was used for the conducted analyses, which were carried out on a representative sample of full-time students at the University of Zielona Góra. The analysis of the students' declarations regarding the five most important life goals that they would like to achieve in the future showed statistically significant differences between women in terms of their socio-cultural gender in the case of six out of twelve goals -being with a loved one, achieving professional success, traveling, having a child, having a group of friends and getting married. In addition, it was found that gender significantly differentiates the coexistence of goals traditionally associated with femininity in the declarations of female students, as well as the coexistence of goals traditionally associated with masculinity. KEYWORDS: gender, femininity, life goals, female students, childless women.ABSTRAKT: Celem badań było ustalenie związku pomiędzy płcią społeczno-kulturową badanych kobiet a ich najważniejszymi celami życiowymi, które chciały zrealizować w przyszłości. Do przeprowadzonych analiz wykorzystano część materiału empirycznego z projektu naukowego "Rola założeń dotyczących płodności w kształtowaniu się intencji prokreacyjnych", który został zrealizowany na reprezentatywnej próbie studentek studiów stacjonarnych Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego. Analiza deklaracji studentek dotyczących pięciu najważniejszych celów życiowych, które chciałyby zrealizować w przyszłości, wykazała na istotne statystycznie różnice pomiędzy kobietami ze względu na ich płeć społeczno-kulturową w przypadku sześciu z dwunastu celów -bycie z ukochaną osobą, osiągnięcie sukcesu zawodowego, podróżowanie, posiadanie dziecka, posiadanie grona przyjaciół oraz wyjście za mąż. Dodatkowo ustalono, że płeć społeczno-kulturowa różnicuje istotnie statystycznie współwystępowanie w deklaracjach studiujących kobiet zarówno celów przypisanych tradycyjnie do kobiecości, jak i współwystępowanie celów tradycyjnie związanych z męskością.