Beyond Barren: Perceptions of Female Infertility Through Time

Fortunately, few of us hear the word "barren" used anymore to refer to our journey through infertility. Though some sort of stigma toward folks who are infertile still exists in virtually all societies, it has been greatly lessened as medical knowledge has advanced.

Throughout time and, unfortunately, even today, the commonly-held perception is that a couple's infertility usually stems from the female partner. Combining this misperception with traditional beliefs toward the role of motherhood can easily lead to feelings of ostracism.

The Whole Ball of Sociological Wax

Some key factors that affect how an infertile woman is thought of and how she fits in to a given society:

religion
medical knowledge and technology
economics
demographics
cultural practices
societal belief systems

From a sociological perspective, reproduction is seen as not only a personal act, but a social one as well. To be a parent is to make a contribution to society.

As the world moved from agrarian to industrialized, resulting changes in economics impacted family and belief systems. Having many children is more valuable in some societies than in others, as in the commonly used example of farm families needing children for workhands. As populations experience conditions favorable to economic growth, fertility's value changes.

Comparisons about an individual's value are often based on what are considered norms by a group of people.

An example of the complexities involved:

In mid-19th century Great Britain, the average married woman gave birth to six children.
More than 35% of married women had eight or more children.
The Church of England was opposed to all forms of contraception.

To a woman of that era, the clear message from these facts would be that procreation, and lots of it, was the expected norm.

However, around that same time, a movement arose to educate women about birth control, which was illegal until the 20th century. The movement, in which people were fined and jailed for disseminating information and advice, came about partly as a result of the industrialization of England and its poverty. To the urban poor, to be highly fertile was not valuable, particularly given that women were legally second-class citizens in all lands at the time. So, the reality of a woman's situation was often different from what society presented as the preferable norm. No doubt these women experienced confusing feelings of both individual relief and societal disapproval.

Certainly where infant and maternal mortality rates have been high, fertility is of great concern. It may be that in "third world" countries where access to medical treatment is an issue, fertility is even more highly valued, even in light of resulting poverty, than in those areas where lifespans have been lengthened by technology.