COVID‐19 and Childlessness among Women in the United States

Holly Hummer

Population and Development Review, 2024, vol. 50, issue S1, 339-361

Abstract: The COVID‐19 pandemic has prompted questions about individuals’ fertility intentions and decisions during such a large‐scale, drawn‐out crisis. In this paper, I ask how women who have not (yet) had children and who are nearing the end of their timeline for parenthood are making sense of the pandemic. Drawing on novel in‐depth interview data conducted during the pandemic with over 100 women aged 35–50 in the United States who are childless for a variety of reasons, I argue that the pandemic has produced a shared sense of “gendered uncertainty” by exacerbating both preexisting worries about motherhood and unease about the future. As the data further reveal, the pandemic has therefore been conceived of by many childless women as a good time to not have children, particularly in light of the United States’ weak infrastructure of family support. These findings contribute to existing theoretical frameworks of fertility change by foregrounding women's subjective evaluations of their reproductive options during a time of upheaval and introducing the important role of gendered uncertainty in shaping reproductive sense‐making. Findings also contribute to the literature on childlessness by demonstrating how childlessness can gain newfound appeal as a family status during turbulent times.

Date: 2024
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