“It's hard to become mothers”: The moral economy of postponing motherhood in neoliberal Chile

Abstract

The delay of childbearing is one of the most prominent transformations of contemporary fertility and reproductive patterns. This article provides a novel approach to understanding why women are postponing motherhood and having children later in life. Drawing on 24 life story interviews with women from Santiago de Chile, I argue that the transition to motherhood is shaped by a moral economy in which women postpone childbearing to enable becoming "good" mothers. In a context in which social fertility is being redefined by neoliberalism, intensive mothering, and lone motherhood, I find that women delay childbearing until after achieving professional and financial milestones that allow them to fulfil the normative conditions for having children.These findings suggest that women postpone the transition to motherhood not because they reject childbearing and traditional gender roles, but rather because they aspire to become "good" mothers in a context characterized by institutional precariousness, relational insecurity, and increasing demands on mothering. Through these findings, I challenge prevalent interpretations of why women are having children later in life, extend accounts of the gendered norms of social fertility, and contest the nature of autonomy driving change in women's lives.

Beyond early motherhood: Trends and determinants of late fertility in Chile

“…Second, cultural and ideational changes affecting fertility timing involve not only the prevalence of values such as self-realization, but also emerging social norms and expectations. Echoing recent qualitative studies (Martin, 2020;Perrier, 2013;Yopo Díaz, 2021), the findings suggest that shifting norms and expectations regarding motherhood, and the increasing demands and responsibilities attached to them, add complexity to the process of having children and are thus relevant to understand rising trends of late fertility. In addition, the findings provide further nuance and complexity to the relationship between gender and fertility by suggesting that the increasing difficulties of being a woman are also important to account for why women are delaying first childbearing and by stressing the ambivalent nature of changing gender roles and its social and subjective consequences for women in life domains including childbearing.…”

“…Qualitative studies aiming to understand motherhood postponement have also stressed that the social conditions for having and raising children play an important role in shaping women's childbearing intentions and practices. These studies outline that the prevalence of gender inequalities in reproductive labour, the intensification of normative demands involved in childrearing, increasing indebtedness, and rising costs of basic services associated to food, education, health, and housing, and the unavailability of quality and affordable childcare services, would push women into delaying childbearing and becoming mothers later in life (Alvarez and Marré, 2022;Martin, 2017Martin, , 2020Yopo Díaz, 2021).…”

Stigmatizing commoning: How neoliberal hegemony eroded collective ability to deal with scarcity in Lebanon

“…As such, they appear as the sole managers of the household and the ones responsible for all consumption decisions made in it, thereby deviating from the traditional practice that “it takes a village to raise a child” (Güney‐Frahm, 2020; Kilty & Dej, 2012). Feminist literature has been critical of this “intensive mothering” as it shows how it reproduces the privatization logic of the neoliberal system (Littler, 2020; Yopo Díaz, 2021). Also, it relies on its concepts of choice, control, and autonomy (Lupton, 2012; McCabe, 2016), which can become almost impossible to reach for deprived women who would feel that they are failing as mothers.…”

“…The critical feminist literature on motherhood and neoliberalism focuses on the alienating prescription of the neoliberal system (Rottenberg, 2014) by addressing mothering in early childhood but rarely examining its implications for mothers of adults, as if mothering stops when a child reaches 18 years old. Critical scholars rightfully underline the constraints behind breastfeeding on demand (Gatrell, 2019; Ryan et al., 2010), being the perfect mother through seeking the right expertise (McCabe, 2016), and aiming for the right choices (Güney‐Frahm, 2020; Littler, 2020; Yopo Díaz, 2021), along with personalized engagement that materializes in the market. My work extends these studies by underlining that after this total “privatization” of children, neoliberalism also pushes mothers toward doing completely the opposite: making sure that their children are totally autonomous, and that they can make their own choices to brand themselves in the market .…”

Power relations and persistent low fertility among domestic workers in Latin America

“…According to diffusion theories, fertility change occurs initially among upper-class women and gradually spreads across other societal groups, eventually reaching the vast majority of the population (Bongaarts & Watkins, 1996; Cleland & Wilson, 1987). There is little, if any, mention of the social structures that capitalism has perpetuated and reinforced in the so-called modernizing societies (a notable exception is the work of Yopo Díaz [2021]). These neglected structures include entrenched economic inequality, gender discrimination, exploitative power relations among social classes, and social exclusion based on racial and ethnic categories.…”