Masculinities: An Overlooked Cultural Influence on Fertility

Rachael S. Pierotti, University of Michigan

In the 1990s, demographic research on fertility benefited from the incorporation of a gendered power perspective that encouraged new research focused on male involvement in reproductive health. Men’s fertility preferences and behaviors, however, remain largely under-theorized. As outlined in this paper, research on the social construction of masculinities has potential to illuminate motivations for men’s fertility preferences and behaviors. At the individual-level, the ways in which men enact masculinity may be a mechanism mediating or moderating part of the association between commonly studied predictors—such as education, contraceptive availability, and media access—and fertility preferences and behaviors. Also, variation over time in dominant forms of masculinity is likely part of the ideational change linked to societal-level fertility trends. This paper offers hypotheses and illustrative evidence about the relationship between masculinity and fertility that inform a proposed new research agenda aimed at greater understanding of men and reproduction.