Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings (Perspectives on Gender)

A collection of essays, framed with original introductions, Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings helps students to think critically about reproduction as a social phenomenon. Divided into six rich and varied sections, this book offers students and instructors a broad overview of the social meanings of reproduction and offers opportunities to explore significant questions of how resources are allocated, individuals are regulated, and how very much is at stake as people and communities aim to determine their own family size and reproductive experiences. This is an ideal core text for courses on reproduction, sexuality, gender, the family, and public health.

Carole Joffe is a professor in the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) program at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco. She is also professor emerita of sociology at the U. of California, Davis. In 2013, Prof. Joffe received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Family Planning. She is the author of several books and numerous articles on various aspects of reproductive health and reproductive politics.

Jennifer Reich is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Denver. She is the author of Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System (Routledge: 2005), which won the American Sociological Association section on Race, Gender, and Class Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award in 2007 and was a finalist for the prestigious C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems in 2006. She has written more than 20 articles and book chapters on gender, reproductive politics, family policy, and welfare.