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Bearing the Reproductive Load? Unequal Reproductive Careers Among U.S. Women

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Abstract

Reproductive events such as infertility, abortion, or unintended pregnancies are often framed as discrete outcomes in scholarly research. This silo-ed approach is quite distinct from how people experience their reproductive lives as embodied and interconnected throughout the life course. In this analysis, we build on and further a “reproductive careers” framework to better account for the number (density) and distinct types (complexity) of reproductive events that cisgender women experience across their life course. We incorporate insights from scholarship on stratified reproduction, cumulative (dis)advantage, and health to conceptualize and empirically examine how women’s reproductive careers are potentially unequally patterned. Using reproductive history data on 4351 U.S. women from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers, we find that Black and Hispanic women, women of lower socioeconomic status, and women with limited healthcare access have both denser and more complex reproductive careers than their more structurally advantaged peers. As summary indicators, density and complexity may offer proxies for the “reproductive load” that subgroups of women differentially experience across the life course.

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Acknowledgements

This is a revised version of an earlier paper presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the Population Association of America in Denver, CO. This research was supported in part by Grant R01-HD044144 “Infertility: Pathways and Psychosocial Outcomes” funded by the National Institute of Child and Human Development (Lynn White and David R. Johnson (PIs). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Funding

This research was supported in part by Grant R01-HD044144 “Infertility: Pathways and Psychosocial Outcomes” funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Lynn White and David R. Johnson (PIs). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sociology Department, Tulane University, 220E Newcomb Hall, New Orleans, LA, 70125, USA

    Katherine M. Johnson

  2. University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

    Karina M. Shreffler

  3. Alfred University, Alfred, NY, USA

    Arthur L. Greil

  4. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Julia McQuillan

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  1. Katherine M. Johnson
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  2. Karina M. Shreffler
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  3. Arthur L. Greil
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  4. Julia McQuillan
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Correspondence to Katherine M. Johnson.

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Johnson, K.M., Shreffler, K.M., Greil, A.L. et al. Bearing the Reproductive Load? Unequal Reproductive Careers Among U.S. Women. Popul Res Policy Rev 42, 14 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-023-09770-6

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