Desired Childbearing Amidst Rising Pronatalism: What Role for Sociology?

Session Submission Type: Invited Session (90 minute)

Description

In the media and public at large, there is considerable concern about the appearance of a lower fertility rate in the United States, and around the world. These declines have given rise to a pronatalist politics that seek to shape Americans’ childbearing decisions. At the same time, there is evidence that Americans would like to have more children than they are currently having. Sociologists might be concerned about both of these trends under a Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework, which includes the right to not have children as well as to have children, along with resources and support necessary to do so. What is the role of sociology in this debate? What might allow all people to have and parent the children they want? To date, it is not clear that interventions like direct payment, tax credits, or parental leave policies are allowing people to fulfill their fertility desires. What’s more, some interventions might be coercive and/or perpetuate rather than ameliorate inequities related to gender, race, and class. This session will include discussion of policy interventions as well as broader sociological theory on topics such as changing family structures, gendered labor, romance and courtship, medically assisted reproduction, social movements, immigration, race and eugenics, and climate change. This panel discussion invites critical stances on questions of decreased fertility rates and changing population dynamics.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Session

Presider

• Eliza Brown, University of California, Berkeley

Panelists

• Sarah K. Cowan, New York University

• Karen B Guzzo, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Holly Savannah Hummer, University of British Columbia

• Zakiya Luna, Washington University in St. Louis

• Kate Tierney, Western Michigan University

Session Organizers

• Eliza Brown, University of California, Berkeley

• Nicholas Mark, University of Wisconsin-Madison