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11 – 20 of over 4000

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Mate Selection in China: Causes and Consequences in the Search for a Spouse
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-331-9

Book part
Publication date: 15 September 2022

Nicky Hudson and Caroline Law

For the millions of women living with endometriosis, significant disruption to normative life expectations and a considerable impact on everyday life are common. Whilst for many…

Abstract

For the millions of women living with endometriosis, significant disruption to normative life expectations and a considerable impact on everyday life are common. Whilst for many women concerns about and experiences of infertility may be a central feature of life with the condition, little work has considered the impact that chronic illness has on reproductive decision-making or on the ways in which a medical condition is managed in relation to plans for conception. This chapter considers how heterosexual women with endometriosis and their male partners experience the intersection of fertility desires with the use of reproductive technologies (contraceptive and conceptive) and how these experiences intersect with the medical and surgical management of endometriosis. Three themes drawn from interview data are presented: the first considers how the uncertain and indeterminate character of endometriosis shapes imaginaries about future fertility, conception and childbearing. The second focuses on how endometriosis mediates expectations about the success of fertility treatments and technologies; exploring in particular the manifestation of low expectations in relation to possible success. The third theme considers how endometriosis and fertility pathways intersect, creating specific disruptions whereby fertility treatment may be delayed by endometriosis care, and where endometriosis care may be interrupted or paused by fertility desires. Our data show how endometriosis shapes reproductive desires, decision-making and experiences and has important implications for understanding how for those living with a chronic illness, plans for having children are made within a context of biographical and biomedical contingency.

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Technologies of Reproduction Across the Lifecourse
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-733-6

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Book part
Publication date: 21 September 2020

Anne-Sophie Robilliard

Despite some decline, most Sub Saharan African countries still exhibit very high levels of fertility, resulting in the lengthening of the phase of strong population growth. Using…

Abstract

Despite some decline, most Sub Saharan African countries still exhibit very high levels of fertility, resulting in the lengthening of the phase of strong population growth. Using Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data collected over a pooled sample of more than 430,000 married women living in 33 countries, the author examines the relationship between empowerment and desired fertility. The author constructs six different proxies of empowerment: two “objective” proxies (education and labor force participation), three “subjective” proxies (say in household decisions, non-acceptance of domestic violence, and no son preference), and a “relative” proxy (small spousal age difference). The author first shows that these six dimensions are related with one another and highly variable from one country to another across the region. the author then explores the relationship of these dimensions with desired fertility at the individual level. On the pooled sample, the author find that there is a strong and negative relationship between all six dimensions of empowerment and desired fertility: in other words, women who have a low degree of empowerment tend to want a higher number of children. This result still holds when taking into account country fixed-effects to account for country-level characteristics. However, when examining more closely the relationship at the country level, the author finds that there is some variation on the strength of the relationship and that its sign is reversed for some indicators in some countries. Lastly, the author finds that local context matters which suggests that empowerment policies should address both the individual and collective dimensions of empowerment.

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Advances in Women’s Empowerment: Critical Insight from Asia, Africa and Latin America
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-472-2

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Book part
Publication date: 25 January 2021

Kamila Kolpashnikova and Man-Yee Kan

If husbands do more housework, would it improve fertility intentions in Taiwan? Using the Taiwan Panel Study of Family Dynamics, the authors examine the association between

Abstract

If husbands do more housework, would it improve fertility intentions in Taiwan? Using the Taiwan Panel Study of Family Dynamics, the authors examine the association between heterosexual husbands’ housework participation on their own and wives’ fertility intentions, according to the expectations of the post-transitional (occurring after the Second Demographic Transition) reversal in fertility rates and the gender revolution framework. This analysis shows that the effects are evident among Taiwanese heterosexual women but not men, who appear to lag behind on the gender revolution. Overall results show that more involvement in housework from husbands increases the fertility intentions among wives but does not increase their own fertility intentions.

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Chinese Families: Tradition, Modernisation, and Change
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-157-0

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Book part
Publication date: 19 November 2021

Lindsay Toman

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the number of transgender adolescents that receive gender-affirming hormones. While the long-term repercussions of taking…

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the number of transgender adolescents that receive gender-affirming hormones. While the long-term repercussions of taking hormones are understudied, it is possible that one of the impacts is infertility. Although infertility is not definite, healthcare professionals are still responsible for discussing fertility preservation with transgender adolescent patients, which encourages a population of young people to determine whether or not they want to biologically have children in the future. Drawing on in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals, parents, and transgender adolescents, this study explores the thoughts and perceptions pertaining to fertility and how these three groups work with one another throughout transition. My findings show that (1) adult participants (parents and healthcare professionals) have mental barriers, which include fear of regret and grief over the loss of anticipated biological motherhood, (2) there is a delay in the conversation happening between the healthcare professionals, parents, and trans adolescents, and (3) trans adolescents reject fertility, but are open to building a family. I argue that cisnormative and transnormative ideologies overshadow these conversations, which could result in limiting the potential for queer biological parenthood. The chapter ends with suggestions for how to make conversations pertaining to fertility preservation more expansive to dismantle transnormativity.

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Advances in Trans Studies: Moving Toward Gender Expansion and Trans Hope
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-030-6

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Book part
Publication date: 14 July 2008

Larry E. Jones and Michèle Tertilt

In this paper, we use data from the US census to document the history of the relationship between fertility choice and key economic indicators at the individual level for women…

Abstract

In this paper, we use data from the US census to document the history of the relationship between fertility choice and key economic indicators at the individual level for women born between 1826 and 1960. We find that this data suggests several new facts that should be useful for researchers trying to model fertility. (1) The reduction in fertility known as the Demographic Transition (or the Fertility Transition) seems to be much sharper based on cohort fertility measures compared to usual measures like Total Fertility Rate; (2) The baby boom was not quite as large as is suggested by some previous work; (3) We find a strong negative relationship between income and fertility for all cohorts and estimate an overall income elasticity of about −0.38 for the period; (4) We also find systematic deviations from a time invariant, iso-elastic, relationship between income and fertility. The most interesting of these is an increase in the income elasticity of demand for children for the 1876–1880 to 1906–1910 birth cohorts. This implies an increased spread in fertility by income which was followed by a dramatic compression.

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Frontiers of Family Economics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-542-0

Abstract

This paper shows how a shorter fecundity horizon for females (a biological constraint) leads to age and educational disparities between husbands and wives. Empirical support is based on data from a natural experiment commencing before and ending after China’s 1980 one-child law. The results indicate that fertility in China declined by about 1.2–1.4 births per woman as a result of China’s anti-natalist policies. Concomitantly spousal age and educational differences narrowed by approximately 0.5–1.0 and 1.0–1.6 years, respectively. These decreases in the typical husband’s age and educational advantages are important in explaining the division of labor in the home, often given as a cause for the gender wage gap. Indeed, as fertility declined, which has been the historical trend in most developed countries, husband-wife age and educational differences diminished leading to less division of labor in the home and a smaller gender wage disparity. Unlike other models of division of labor in the home which rely on innately endogenous factors, this paper’s theory is based on an exogenous biological constraint.

Abstract

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(In)Fertile Male Bodies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-609-4

Book part
Publication date: 27 October 2017

Sigeto Tanaka

Purpose: In the early 2010s, Japanese society recognized and experienced a panic about increasing infertility and people’s lack of knowledge about human reproduction. This chapter…

Abstract

Purpose: In the early 2010s, Japanese society recognized and experienced a panic about increasing infertility and people’s lack of knowledge about human reproduction. This chapter focuses on several graphs that misrepresented or distorted scientific findings that were used in the campaign related to this panic and explores (1) how the graphs were made, used, and authorized, and (2) how they contributed to changes in discourses and policies.

Methodology/approach: Literature survey.

Findings: (1) The graphs were made in the field of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine by questionable methods, including falsifying, trimming, and misunderstanding of data. (2) Researchers in the field of fertility study relied on secondary and tertiary sources thus ignoring and compounding errors. (3) Such inauthentic research was approved and politically mobilized by professional organizations, rather than being penalized or criticized. (4) Discourse based on such unscientific knowledge may have encouraged a pronatalist policy of promoting early marriage and education about human fertility and life planning, targeted at teenage girls.

Research limitations/implications: Any society suffering from a low birthrate can experience similar phenomena. This study focuses on Japan, but it has wider implications about how low integrity and quality of the presentation of medical research can cause these issues elsewhere in the world.

Social implications: This chapter includes a warning against biological explanations that contain unscientific connotations about gender.

Originality/value of study: This study confirms how gender-related policy in 2010s Japan was influenced by science that lacked research integrity and was of sub-standard quality.

Details

Gender Panic, Gender Policy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-203-1

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Article
Publication date: 10 April 2023

Paul Strickland and Vanessa Ratten

The aim of this article is to review the literature on fertility tourism in terms of social policy implications. There has been a global growth in interest in fertility tourism…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this article is to review the literature on fertility tourism in terms of social policy implications. There has been a global growth in interest in fertility tourism, especially amongst these in developed countries travelling to developing countries for fertility needs. Due to women's increased involvement in the workforce and changing societal norms, the age at which females start having children has risen resulting in a need for many to seek fertility help. These developments have led to a growth in fertility tourism and related services.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors undertake a systematic literature review on fertility tourism to identify cognate research themes that relate to social policies such as assisted reproduction facilities, medical tourism and changing societal attitudes.

Findings

The findings of the study have important implications for social policy particularly regarding the tourism and health industry, practitioners and policymakers. This involves focussing on new geographic regions that are underrepresented in current research but have a high interest in fertility tourism. Currently much of the research is centred around western contexts but as evident in our review newly emerging markets in countries that have high infertility rates requires further attention. In addition, the authors provide directions for future research avenues that focus on how to evaluate changing social policies with regards to reproductive choices.

Originality/value

Whilst there has been much discussion in the media about fertility tourism there is limited knowledge about social policies related to human reproductive systems, so this article is amongst the first to discuss societal implications.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 43 no. 11/12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

11 – 20 of over 4000