Social Fertility

My new article published in Women’s Studies International Forum, “Pushing for the perfect time: Social and biological fertility,” is available to download for free until June 20, 2017.

The article is part of a larger project in which I’ve interviewed childless women in the United States between the ages of 25 and 40 about how they go about making decisions regarding whether, when, and how to have children in the future. I’m especially interested in the impact that knowledge about infertility and assisted reproductive technologies has on that decision-making process (and thus is an extension of my previous research on egg freezing and “anticipated infertility“). In this article, I propose a more holistic understanding of fertility that is inclusive of the biological limitations of the body as well as the social and circumstantial factors that contribute to whether women feel competent to have and raise children.

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:

"Biological fertility—the physical ability to conceive and carry a child to full term—is distinct from social fertility—the ideal social arrangements that enable a woman to be supported in childbearing and childrearing. Below, I describe how women reconcile competing deadlines and timelines as they contemplate whether or not to have children in the context of their aging bodies and declining fertility, and analyze to what extent women want medical interventions that can enhance their ability to conceive. While the bodily manipulations offered by reproductive medicine may give individual women more time to contemplate their family-building decisions, they ultimately reshape normative standards regarding the timing of reproduction. Extending women’s fertility through technology may be one solution to resolving conflicting timelines, but does not eliminate structural and personal barriers to autonomy in childbearing and parenthood."

[May 22, 2017]