Reproduction of Inequality

Katherine Mason is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Women's & Gender Studies Program at Wheaton College. She is the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment.

From gestational diabetes to drinking coffee, The Reproduction of Inequality maps how pregnant bodies are subject to increasingly high levels of medical and moral scrutiny. Theorizing pregnancy, birth, and post-partum conditions through the lens of gendered, classed, and racialized 'reproductive body projects,' Kate Mason captures the contradictions in the expectations for perfect designer pregnancies in the face of eroded infrastructures for healthcare, childcare, and general support for childbirth and childrearing. Based on rich interviews, this book tells moving, in-depth personal stories while contributing to important debates in sociology, gender studies, and health-related fields (Miliann Kang, author of The Managed Hand: Race, Gender and the Body in Beauty Service Work) For everyone who cares deeply about maternal and child health and addressing health inequities, this book is a gift. Delivering an insightful and sophisticated analysis of how biological reproduction is intertwined with social reproduction, Katherine Mason elegantly reveals the cultural meanings and stakes of reproductive body projects in the twenty-first century. The Reproduction of Inequality is a truly wonderful book. (Miranda R. Waggoner, author of The Zero Trimester: Pre-Pregnancy Care and the Politics of Reproductive Risk) The Reproduction of Inequality shows how adopting so-called 'healthy lifestyles' during pregnancy and post-partum is not just about health. It provides privileged mothers a way to display their social status and transmit it to their children, while worsening gendered inequalities at home. A must-read for anyone interested in social inequality, gender, family, and health! (Abigail C. Saguy, author of Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are) The Reproduction of Inequality provides a much-needed demonstration of the ways that 'health' has become a rigid moralized ideology reinforcing racialized class divides between mothers. Professor Mason insightfully instructs that while nearly all mothers and pregnant people want what is best for their babies, only those with resources and privilege are trusted to make the "right" choices -- self- sacrificing, responsible, well-informed decisions – on everything from having a cup of coffee while pregnant to regaining control over a postpartum body, and perhaps most important, to inculcating a near-religious devotion to 'health' in one's children. (Linda M. Blum, author of At the Breast: Ideologies of Motherhood and Breastfeeding in the Contemporary US) The Reproduction of Inequality is a well-written and clearly organized book that examines the sociology of human reproduction and the social pressures that women encounter regarding pregnancy, birth, and the post-partum period. (Affilia: Feminist Inquiry into Social Work)