Gender, Class and Contraception in Comparative Context: The Perplexing Links between Sterilization and Disadvantage

Megan M. Sweeney, University of California, Los Angeles
Mieke C. W. Eeckhaut, Ghent University

This research considers the association between sterilization and socioeconomic status in comparative context, using data from the 2006-10 National Survey of Family Growth and the Generations and Gender Survey. We first confirm that longstanding patterns of association between socioeconomic status and sterilization persist in the contemporary United States. Specifically, female sterilization is associated with economic disadvantage but male sterilization is associated with economic advantage. We next investigate whether these patterns extend to nine other low-fertility countries. Our results show that female sterilization is associated with educational disadvantage in most study countries, whereas the positive educational gradient in male sterilization is observed only in the US. Finally, we ask whether the persistent link between female sterilization and disadvantage is explained by accelerated childbearing schedules, parity, and differences union stability. Even when adjusting for these factors, a strong association between female sterilization and disadvantage remains in Belgium, France, and the U.S.