What is it about?
Contemporary approaches to motherhood are very demanding of women's time and resources. Many women without children are aware of these demands and this affects how they approach motherhood. Some professional class women, particularly those without a committed partner, see these demands as incompatible with their current lifestyle. Some of these women choose to freeze their eggs so that they can put off having children until they feel better prepared to take on the demands of motherhood. Freezing their eggs helps them to worry less about age-related infertility or future regret, which they feel will help them make better decisions about romantic relationships.
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Why is it important?
In recent years, marketing of elective egg freezing to professional class women has increased. However, there is currently very little data about why women choose to freeze their eggs. Most popular press reporting assumes that workplace demands are a primary motivation. While workplace concerns do play a role, my research demonstrates that family-side concerns like demanding parenting practices, unsupportive partners, and relationship instability all play a role in women's decisions to freeze their eggs.
Perspectives
When we think about the burdens of motherhood, we tend to think about mothers. While this makes sense, we often forget the effects that the burdens of motherhood can have on women without children. Many women think about how they would approach parenting and the effects that motherhood will have on their lives long before they start trying to have children. The way in which they imagine the role that motherhood will play in their futures effects the decisions they make in the present. I want to bring the perspectives of these women into our discussion about motherhood and elective egg freezing.
Dr. Kit C Myers
University of Southern California
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: “If I’m Going to Do It, I’m Going to Do It Right”: Intensive Mothering Ideologies among Childless Women Who Elect Egg Freezing, Gender & Society, October 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0891243217732329.
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