Motherhood in Spain: From the "Baby Boom" to "Structural Infertility"
1AFIN Research Group, Social and Cultural Anthropology Department, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Medical Anthropology
|August 10, 2021
Abstract:
We analyze the mechanisms of reproductive governance that influence reproduction in Spain through 66 semi-structured interviews with heterosexual parents. We examine reproductive governance through moral regimes surrounding four arenas: the labor market, gender relations at home, institutional feminist discourses, and the narrative of choice. We show that mothers are considered to be socially responsible for children, a fact that is key to understanding how Spain went from a "baby boom" between the 1950 and 1970s to "structural infertility" since the 1990s.
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