Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings

by Carole Joffe (Editor), Jennifer Reich (Editor)

Overview

The new edition of Reproduction and Society assembles an authoritative collection of the best scholarship on reproductive matters to help students and readers think critically and more expansively about acts of reproduction as social phenomena.

The social, political, and personal meanings of reproduction have become increasingly important and surround us in the news, during elections, and even within popular culture. In the aftermath of the United States Supreme Court's decision to overturn a nearly 50-year-old precedent guaranteeing a constitutional right to abortion, these issues have become even more pressing. Exploring the topic from a sociological lens, and drawing on influential writing from other fields, including history, economics, anthropology, and medicine, editors Carole Joffe and Jennifer Reich are assured and accessible guides as they lead readers across six core thematic areas analyzing reproductive self-determination and why it matters. From a reproductive justice perspective, the new edition examines issues related to contraception and sterilization, abortion, pregnancy, maternal-fetal conflicts, and uses of reproductive technologies. Readers will encounter classical texts that have contributed to the foundation of this exciting field, as well as more recent research that continues to push the field forward, all in the service of sharpening their understanding of why reproductive politics have been and continue to be contentious, complicated, and high stakes.

Refreshed and significantly expanded, with over two dozen new selections, the second edition of this reader will have wide appeal for undergraduate and graduate students who are new to the study of reproduction, both in courses that focus on the topic across different disciplines and as a supplement to courses on the family, gender, health care, social problems, and sexuality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032225272
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/01/2025
Series:	Perspectives on Gender
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	450
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Carole Joffe is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and a Professor Emerita of Sociology at U.C. Davis. She is the coauthor, with David S. Cohen, of the book, After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but not Abortion. She is the author of several other books and over 100 articles and op-eds on abortion and other topics in reproductive health. She has won lifetime achievement awards from the Society of Family Planning, the National Abortion Federation, and the Abortion Care Network.

Jennifer Reich is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research examines how individuals and families weigh information and strategize their interactions with the state and service providers in the context of public policy, particularly as they relate to health care and welfare. She is the author of two award-winning books, Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System and Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines, and is editor of the book, State of Families as well as the NYU book series, Health, Society, and Inequality. She has written more than 50 articles and book chapters that explore vaccination, reproductive health, welfare, multiracial families, public assistance, and recovery after disaster.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Reproduction and the Public Interest in Private Acts by Carole Joffe & Jennifer Reich SECTION I: Contraception Introduction 1. The Folklore of Birth Control by Linda Gordon 2. The Pill: Genocide or Liberation? by Toni Cade Bambera 3. The Fertility of Women of Mexican Origin: A Social Constructionist Approach by Elena Gutierrez 4. The Economic Impact of the Pill by Annie Lowrey SECTION II: Abortion Introduction 5. A selection from Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and After Roe v. Wade by Carole Joffe 6. Practice Constraints and the Institutionalized Buck-Passing of Abortion Care by Lori Freedman 7. Rethinking the Mantra that Abortion should be "Safe, Legal and Rare" by Tracy A. Weitz 8. Race, reproductive politics and reproductive health care in the contemporary United States by Willie Parker and Carole Joffe 9. Not Ready to Fill His Father’s Shoes: A Masculinist Discourse of Abortion by Jennifer Reich 10. Facing the Fetus by Helena Silverstein SECTION III: Reproductive Technologies Introduction 11. Selling Genes, Selling Gender by Rene Almeling 12. India’s Reproductive Assembly Line by Sharmila Rudrappa 13. Debates over Lesbian Reproduction within Lesbian/Gay and Feminist Communities by Laura Mamo 14. The Belly Mommy and the Fetus Sitter: The Reproductive Marketplace and Family Intimacies by Joshua Gamson SECTION IV: Pregnancy and Birth Introduction 15. Reproduction in Bondage by Dorothy Roberts 16. Maternal Mortality in the United States: A Human Rights Failure by Francine Coeytaux, Debra Bingham, and Nan Strauss 17. Choosing Your Health Care Provider and Birth Setting by Boston Women’s Health Collective 18. Contested Conceptions and Misconceptions by Rayna Rapp 19. Motherhood Lost: Cultural Dimensions of Miscarriage and Stillbirth in America by Linda L. Layne 20. The Risks to Reproductive Health and Fertility by Jackie Schwartz and Tracey Woodruff 21. The Liability Threat in Obstetrics by Theresa Morris SECTION V: Groups Targeted for Specific Reproductive Policies Introduction 22. Invisible Immigrants: What Will Immigration Reform Mean for Migrant Women? by Michelle Chen 23. Roe v. Wade and the new Jane Crow: Reproductive Rights in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Lynn M. Paltrow 24. Prescriptions: Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, Prison Ob/Gyn by Naomi Stotland 25. Disabled Women and Reproductive Rights by Virginia Kallianes and Phyllis Rubenfeld 26. Motherhood as Class Privilege in America by Rickie Solinger SECTION VI: The Way Forward: Moving Toward Reproductive Justice Introduction 27. Reproductive Justice by Zakiya Luna and Kristin Luker 28. Thinking Beyond ICPD+10: Where Should Our Movement Be Going? by Sonia Corrêa, Adrienne Germain, Rosalind P. Petchesky 29. The Globalization of the Culture Wars by Michelle Goldberg 30. Female Feticide and Infanticide: Implications for Reproductive Justice by Ramaswami Mahalingam and Madeline Wachman 31. Excerpt from Remarks to the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session , delivered 5 September 1995, Beijing, China Hillary Rodham Clinton

Editorial Reviews

"I love this book! Reproduction and Society is a treasure trove of feminist, sociological, and political knowledge about human reproduction. With a range of topics and exquisite attention to inequality, it is sure to become a staple in courses on sex and gender, reproduction, bodies, families, and more. The contributors are leaders in the field and together, their chapters advance our knowledge of reproductive health and justice in the 21^st century." - Monica J. Casper, Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Arizona, and author of The Making of the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery

"This book is a timely and praiseworthy compilation of articles spanning 50 years that explore the dialectic between private reproduction and public policy. Because the control and manipulation of women's bodies are as much a matter of culture and politics as about biology, teaching about the complexity of reproductive politics is never easy. Pedagogical attempts are more difficult due to the lack of aggregated materials accessibly written for both professors and students. This book contributes substantially to the scholarship on reproductive politics, and is impressive for its diversity and breadth of contributors." - Loretta J. Ross, Former National Coordinator of SisterSong

 

"Joffe and Reich have performed a brilliant act of intellectual beneficence. This one volume collects an extraordinary set of insights and analyses, facilitating a rich understanding the contours and content of reproductive politics today. Since dipping into Reproduction and Society once, I have returned to it again and again." - Rickie Solinger, Historian, and author of Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford, 2013)

"A collection of great value not only to teachers, not only to anyone concerned with women's ability to be full citizens in a democracy, but also to anyone concerned with today's powerful right-wing attacks on health and family wellbeing. It includes the very best thinking on these issues available today." - Linda Gordon, History, New York University, author of The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America

"In this exciting new interdisciplinary collection, two leading scholars of reproduction assemble essential readings on contraception, abortion, pregnancy, and birth. Informative, nuanced essays introduce students to the intersecting politics of reproduction, demonstrating that these biological processes are also fundamentally social. Reproduction and Society will be a valuable addition to courses on family, gender, sexuality, technology, health, and medicine." - Rene Almeling, Sociology, Yale University, and the author of Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm.

"What a brilliant collection of cutting edge chapters that skillfully describe the critical challenges for those working on reproductive justice, evidence-based policy making, and the persistent inequities that face women in particular - whether because of gender, class or race. Faculty in schools of public health and women, gender and sexuality studies programs will find this the best such collection to date. More comprehensive than anything of its kind I have ever seen." - Judy Norsigian, Executive Director, Our Bodies Ourselves

"In Reproduction and Society, editors Carole Joffe and Jennifer Reich have compiled an impressive ‘best of’ collection of readings on the social and political significance of reproduction. Contributors from diverse disciplinary and professional backgrounds have applied themselves to contraception, pregnancy, policy and more; the result is a volume that is as compelling as it is informative." - Jeanne Flavin, Sociology, Fordham University, Board President, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, and author of Our Bodies, Our Crimes: the Policing of Women's Reproduction in America

"Feminist sociologists Carole Joffe and Jennifer Reich have created a timely and valuable resource that illuminates the personal and political implications of key reproductive experiences. As editors, they have drawn from outstanding scholarship in a range of disciplines to examine contraception, abortion, assisted reproduction, pregnancy and childbirth through diverse, interrelated sociological lenses: feminist analyses of governance and institutional control; intersectionality, reproductive justice and social movements. If we are ever to achieve reproductive justice in the U.S., we need this book for its informed and thoughtful consideration of the complexity of issues facing women and men whose reproductive options are shaped by culture, ideology and politics. This book is a must-read for the generation most affected by U.S. reproductive policies—future parents—and is destined to become a classic in the sociology of reproduction." - Christine H. Morton, author of Birth Ambassadors: Doulas and the Re-Emergence of Woman-Supported Birth in America, founder of ReproNetwork.org, and research sociologist at Stanford University

"Reproduction and Society represents the only effort that I have seen to create a clear and comprehensive framework for understanding the controversies in reproductine health and place them logically within their much larger social context... It should be required reading for any student of human rights, gender issues, medical care and social justice, as well as phsyicians, lawyers, public health students, nursing students and/or sociologists... It is critical to read every one of the pages of this book, which as so much to teach about the complexities and interwoven issues in human reproduction." - Suzanne Poppema, advisory board member of the University of Washington Wome's Center, USA, and founding board member of Physicians for Productive Health

From the Publisher