Fertility Timing Work: The Invisible Labor of Timing Parenthood

• In Event: Structural Constraints on U.S. Fertility

Abstract

Much of the work that women do more of than men—for example, housework and childcare—is unpaid and not seen as work and has, as such, been called “invisible labor” (Hochschild 1989; Daniels 1987: 403; Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer, and Robinson 2000). This unpaid, invisible labor done by women comprises “physical tasks” which include childcare, “cooking, cleaning, and shopping”, as well as “cognitive labor” and “emotional labor (Daminger 2019: 609).” Others have extended the concept of invisible, gendered labor to include the work necessary to prevent pregnancy (Bertotti 2013; Kimport 2018; Littlejohn 2021). Bertotti (2013), Kimport (2018), and Littlejohn (2021) empirically assessed the gendered, invisible nature of fertility work associated with contraception. Further, Bertotti (2013: 13) suggested that “navigating fertility”, more broadly, is an important area of study. In this paper I extend research in that direction. I introduce and develop the idea of “fertility timing work”—the idea that attempting to time when one has children takes effort, and that that effort can be seen as invisible, unpaid labor. I provide evidence that the invisible labor of fertility timing work is frequent across the life course, is gendered, and that people time fertility around economic concerns. Examples of such economic concerns include the demands of school and paid work as well as related financial concerns, including access to food, health care, and housing. An important implication of my project is that effort put towards timing parenthood is primarily done by women and is generally understood to be responsibility of families, rather than the responsibility of communities, workplaces, schools or governments. That is, like other gendered, invisible labor, fertility timing work is privatized and feminized (Briggs 2017; Calarco 2024).

Author

• Catherine J. Taylor, University of California-Santa Barbara