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Publication Date
12-9-2025
Description
The drop in Spanish birth rates in 1998 to their lowest level of 1.1 births per woman was accompanied by a boom in publishing about motherhood. New narrative forms, ranging from blogs to diaries to comics, expressed women’s experiences, including ambivalence about motherhood in the face of societal pressures. Narrating Infertility in Spain, the first study of infertility in post-2008 female-authored texts, analyzes discussions of adoption, assisted reproduction, egg and sperm donation, and the decision not to have children due to economic or social instability. By examining the work of writers and vocal activists Silvia Nanclares, Raquel Sánchez-Silva, Samanta Villar, Laura Freixas, and Diana López Varela, Ross situates infertility in Spain within the cultural context of the Great Recession, while considering it as a business, a crisis, a stigma, and a class issue, and offering broader understandings of contemporary fertility challenges in Spain and beyond.
Keywords
Julia Menú García, Infertility, Loretta Ross, Rickie Solinger, Margarete Sandelowski, Motherhood in Spain, Primary infertility, Secondary infertility, Structural infertility, Great Recession, Quién quiere ser madre, Tengo los óvulos contados, Madre hay más que una, A mí no me iba a pasar, Maternofobia: Retrato de una generación enfrentada a la maternidad, Raquel Sánchez-Silva, Samantha Villar, Laura Friexas, Diana López Varela, Motherhood narratives, Feminist activism, Assisted reproduction, Voluntary childlessness, Involuntary childlessness, Neoliberalism, International adoption, Spanish feminist movement, Silvia Nanclares, Spanish fertility treatments, Deviant and non-deviant mothers, Commercialization of women’s bodies, Franco Dictatorship, Impact of assisted reproduction, Infertility business, Miranda Ortega, Infertility stigma, Spanish birthrate, Assisted reproduction technologies, Age and fertility, Pronatalism, Mother-norming, Spanish egg donation, Male infertility, Female infertility, Altruistic donation, Fertility in Spain, Fertility in Europe, Social neoliberalism, Spanish organ donation, Spanish reproductive crisis, Classism and infertility, Etienne Freixas, Motherhood in literature, Bruna Álvarez, Diana Marre, Women’s reproductive decisions, Feminist theory, Reproductive choice, Abortion in Spain, Menú García, Belén García Abia, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Beatriz San Román, Diana Oliver, Elissa Foster, Peter Selman, Laura Freixas, infertility in Spain, delayed maternity, post-2008 Great Recession, assisted repro
Rights
Copyright © 2026 by Catherine Bourland Ross
Language
eng
ISBN
9781684485734