Obedient Men and Obsessive Women: Donor Insemination, Gender and Psychology in Belgium

Abstract

AbstractDrawing on contemporary studies and oral history interviews, this article analyses psychiatric evaluations of heterosexual couples requesting donor insemination in Belgium in the 1970s. It contains two interrelated arguments. First, it reassesses the reason why mental health professionals were incorporated into fertility clinics. In response to negative assumptions about the mental stability of candidates seeking donor insemination, they had to act as gatekeepers. This finding contradicts earlier research, which linked the integration of mental health professionals in reproductive medicine to the growing awareness of the emotional consequences of infertility and to the exclusivity of in vitro fertilisation. Second, this article shows that psychiatric evaluations were influenced by both traditional gender roles and newer models of equality. As the mirror of a society that was changing at different speeds, they reflected both the transformation of traditional ideals of family, sex and marriage and the discomfort sparked by these changes.