The meaning of postponed motherhood for women in the United States and Sweden: Aspects of feminism and radical timing strategies

Abstract

This exploratory study considered certain psychosocial, medical, and cultural aspects of the phenomenon of postponed motherhood for one cohort of white women born between 1947 and 1953 in Sweden and the United States. A cross-cultural comparison was made of the experience of pregnancy and the early perinatal period in 15 American and 16 Swedish women to find out (a) whether timing decisions reflected the influence of feminist ideology toward a reproductive strategy radically different from the conventional one, and (b) whether the pattern of delayed motherhood was culture specific. Results indicated that the patterns of delayed motherhood were culture specific. Feminist ideology clearly influenced the timing of the American women's first birth but was evident in Sweden. Women in the U.S. exhibited more nonconventional behaviors and attitudes, whereas Swedish women were more conventional. However, the husbands in both groups were remarkably similar in infant caretaking behaviors, regardless of culture and level of education attainment. These findings indicate postponed motherhood has different meanings in the cultural context of these two Western industrialized societies.

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