What Education Cannot Equalize: Segregated Social Networks and Media in Stratified Reproduction

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the United States, age at first birth is increasing and fertility rates are declining. In the absence of policy solutions that enable people to have the children they desire, individuals who have postponed childbearing may seek biomedical solutions in the form of fertility treatments. However, fertility care is marked by racial and socioeconomic inequalities in the United States. How and why such inequalities persist remains unclear, especially for populations with socioeconomic advantages. Using an intersectional and comparative approach, this article explores how access to health information related to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) among Black and White women in United States graduate programs may contribute to the observed inequalities in fertility care. Through qualitative analyses of semi-structured interviews, the results demonstrate social class can act as an equalizer of exposure to and knowledge about IVF. However, social network segregation and media portrayals of infertility construct social contexts that create implicit, structural barriers to Black women’s use of fertility treatments while encouraging use among White women. The findings provide new insights into the social structures that create stratified reproduction and demonstrate how resources garnered by social class cannot entirely ameliorate the effects of structural and systemic racism on health information.