The Biological Clock: Age, Risk, and the Biopolitics of Reproductive Time
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Biological Clock: Age, Risk, and the Biopolitics of Reproductive Time Martina Yopo Díaz 1,2 Accepted: 7 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The present article explores the social and subjective dimensions of the biological clock and its implications for reproductive time through a qualitative study based on 40 life story interviews of women from Santiago de Chile. Although the narrative of the biological clock has become a prevalent frame for addressing reproductive time in the context of late childbearing, age-related infertility, and the use of assisted reproductive technologies, few studies engage in an in-depth analysis of the biological clock— its boundaries, dynamics, and the particular ways in which it shapes women’s views and experiences of reproductive time. The present article aims to advance current knowledge on the intersection of time, reproduction, and biopolitics by arguing that the biological clock regulates reproductive time by shaping the boundaries and dynamics of female fertility through the clock. By determining reproductive time as quantitative, standardised, linear, and irreversible and by outlining the passing of time through pressure, risk, and burden, the biological clock determines when it is possible and desirable to have children and regulates reproduction, gender, and the female life course. These findings highlight the importance of critically addressing the narrative of the biological clock and its implications for women’s views and experiences of reproductive time. Keywords Biological clock . Time . Gender . Reproduction . Biopolitics . Chile
The biological clock has become a prevalent framework for addressing reproductive time in the context of late childbearing, age-related infertility, and the use of assisted reproductive technologies. In many countries, women are postponing the transition to motherhood. Several studies show that over the past decades the percentage of women who are delaying childbearing and having their first child at 35 or later has increased (Cooke et al. 2010; Lavender et al. 2015; Wagner et al. 2019; Wyndham et al. 2012). Among others, Billari et al. (2011, p. 616) argue that this has been “one of the most important changes in reproductive behaviour in recent decades.” This transformation is prevalent in high-income Western
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01198-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Martina Yopo Díaz [email protected] 1
Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2
Max-Weber-Institut für Soziologie, University of Heidelberg, Bergheimer Str. 58, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany
developed countries and is also emerging in middle-income developing countries (Beets et al. 2011). Postponing the transition to motherhood imposes challenges to reproductive time because the time required to achieve personal and social milestones conflicts with the available time for childbearing determined by
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