Reproductive careers of women in Slovakia during the state socialist era of the 1970s and in transforming society

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to understand changes in fertility timing and ordering of reproductive life events over the women's life course. We investigate the process of family formation and transition to motherhood in Slovakia comparing birth cohorts of women who experienced childbearing during the state socialism of the 1970s and in transforming society. We employ the life course theory and combine qualitative methods with cross-sectional and cohort analysis of reproductive behaviour. Compared to the standardisation of reproductive careers during the state socialist era we observe individualisation of the life course and lowering degree of co-occurrence of life events in transition to adulthood. We find that sequential view of the life course, the perceived incompatibility of parenting with parallel life careers and newly articulated age norms contribute to the postponement of childbearing, which is perceived a rational strategy in response to the context of the market-oriented economy. Keywords: life course, reproductive behaviour, cohort fertility, postponement of childbearing, qualitative methods, Slovakia Abstrakt Hlavným cieľom štúdie je preskúmať zmeny usporiadania a časovania reprodukčných udalostí v rámci reprodukčných dráh žien. Porovnávame proces zakladania rodiny a prechodu k...

The main goal of this study is to understand changes in fertility timing and ordering of reproductive life events over the women's life course. We investigate the process of family formation and transition to motherhood in Slovakia comparing birth cohorts of women who experienced childbearing during the state socialism of the 1970s and in transforming society. We employ the life course theory and combine qualitative methods with cross-sectional and cohort analysis of reproductive behaviour. Compared to the standardisation of reproductive careers during the state socialist era we observe individualisation of the life course and lowering degree of co-occurrence of life events in transition to adulthood. We find that sequential view of the life course, the perceived incompatibility of parenting with parallel life careers and newly articulated age norms contribute to the postponement of childbearing, which is perceived a rational strategy in response to the context of the market-oriented economy. Keywords: life course, reproductive behaviour, cohort fertility, postponement of childbearing, qualitative methods, Slovakia Abstrakt Hlavným cieľom štúdie je preskúmať zmeny usporiadania a časovania reprodukčných udalostí v rámci reprodukčných dráh žien. Porovnávame proces zakladania rodiny a prechodu k...