Expectant Mothers: Women’s Infertility and the Potential Identity of Biological Motherhood

Jeni Loftus; Paul Namaste

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.07.1.02

Authors

Jeni Loftus Purdue University, USA
Paul Namaste Performa Higher Education, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.07.1.02

Keywords:

Identity Theory, Health, Infertility, Possible Self

Abstract

Using the voices of 196 infertile women we analyze women’s infertility from the perspective of identity theory. Results illustrate how the potential identity of becoming a biological mother can have an extremely high level of salience, therefore women enact behaviors that attempt to make the potential identity of motherhood a reality. However, because a discrepancy exists between the potential and actual identities, these women experience harmful consequences until they either become pregnant or choose to stop infertility treatments. By understanding how these women create, interpret, and sustain the potential identity of being a biological mother while struggling to reject a possibly permanent infertile identity, this study offers new insights into both the social process of infertility and identity theory.

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Author Biographies

Jeni Loftus, Purdue University, USA

Jeni Loftus is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Purdue University. Her
research focuses on gender, health, family, sexuality and social psychology. Among her current
research projects are a study on the causes and consequences of age discordant relationships among
adolescents and a study of the social psychological effects of female infertility. Her research has
appeared in journals such as American Sociological Review, Archives of Sexual Behavior,
Sociological Focus and The Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Paul Namaste, Performa Higher Education, USA

Paul Namaste Ph.D. is a Sociologist who earned his degree from Indiana University - Bloomington.
His main research interests revolve either around issues of self & identity or the effects of higher
education on race, class & gender inequality. Paul is currently the head of the survey research division
at Performa Higher Education, a consulting firm that works with small, private colleges throughout the
United States.

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