Making the Right Time: the transition to motherhood in contemporary Chile

Despite significant changes in gender roles and fertility patterns, most women become mothers and this experience shapes their identities and lives in meaningful ways. As important as whether or not women have children, is when they become mothers. Prevalent studies on the timing of the transition to motherhood tend to neglect women’s views and experiences, provide disembedded and binary accounts of time and agency, and disregard an in-depth analysis of time. In this thesis, I draw on conceptual elements from sociology, the life course perspective, and gender and feminist theories to address the ways in which women understand, experience and make the timing of the transition to motherhood in contemporary Chile. This research is framed within a constructivist paradigm, an interpretive epistemology, and a qualitative research design, and is based on life story interviews with 40 women from urban Santiago de Chile. The findings of this thesis reveal that making the right time in the transition to motherhood is shaped by the politics of choice and the multidimensional nature of time. In becoming mothers, women have to resolve cultural contradictions of agency regarding pregnancy and fertility. While neoliberal and postfeminist ideologies outline women as free, equal, and responsible to determine when to have children, in practice, their choices remain constrained by gender norms, restrictions to reproductive agency, and social inequalities. In becoming mothers, women also have to reconcile multiple ontologies of time, conflicting age norms and the sequence of the life course. This involves negotiating the influence of nature and God, the boundaries of the biological clock, the risks of ‘early’ and ‘late’ childbearing, and the delay of motherhood. By challenging binary understandings of the relationship between time and agency, this thesis unveils the complexities and nuances of lived experiences of timing the transition to motherhood, and advances theoretical and empirical knowledge on the intersections between motherhood, time and agency

The Biological Clock: Age, Risk, and the Biopolitics of Reproductive Time

Funder: Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002848Funder: Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trust; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003343AbstractThe present article explores the social and subjective dimensions of the biological clock and its implications for reproductive time through a qualitative study based on 40 life story interviews of women from Santiago de Chile. Although the narrative of the biological clock has become a prevalent frame for addressing reproductive time in the context of late childbearing, age-related infertility, and the use of assisted reproductive technologies, few studies engage in an in-depth analysis of the biological clock—its boundaries, dynamics, and the particular ways in which it shapes women’s views and experiences of reproductive time. The present article aims to advance current knowledge on the intersection of time, reproduction, and biopolitics by arguing that the biological clock regulates reproductive time by shaping the boundaries and dynamics of female fertility through the clock. By determining reproductive time as quantitative, standardised, linear, and irreversible and by outlining the passing of time through pressure, risk, and burden, the biological clock determines when it is possible and desirable to have children and regulates reproduction, gender, and the female life course. These findings highlight the importance of critically addressing the narrative of the biological clock and its implications for women’s views and experiences of reproductive time.</jats:p

El tiempo de las mujeres en Chile: repensar la agencia

En las sociedades contemporáneas, un conjunto de transformaciones sociales y culturales han vuelto problemáticos el uso y distribución del tiempo en la vida cotidiana de las mujeres. En Chile, los estudios sobre el tiempo han contribuido a visibilizar los problemas que las mujeres enfrentan en la gestión del tiempo en su vida cotidiana, pero han relegado a un segundo plano la relevancia de la agencia para la experiencia temporal. Este artículo introduce el concepto trabajo temporal para mostrar empíricamente las estrategias que las mujeres chilenas despliegan en la configuración de su experiencia del tiempo en la vida cotidiana. Se concluye que, a pesar de la relevancia de la agencia para la experiencia temporal de las mujeres en Chile, ésta continuaría siendo ampliamente determinada por las desigualdades y asimetrías de la organización social del tiempo y sus contradicciones relacionales, institucionales y estructurales.In contemporary societies, a set of social and cultural transformations has made the use and distribution of time in the everyday life of women problematic. In Chile, studies of time have contributed to making visible the problems that women face in managing time in their daily lives, but have relegated the relevance of agency for temporal experience to a position of secondary importance. This article introduces the concept of temporal work to show empirically the strategies that Chilean women deploy in the configuration of their experience of time in everyday life. It concludes that, despite the relevance of agency for women’s experience of the temporal in Chile, it will continue to be widely determined by the inequalities and asymmetries of the social organization of time and its contradictions in terms of relationships, institutions and structures.Nas sociedades contemporâneas, um conjunto de transformações sociais e culturais têm tornado problemáticos o uso e a distribuição do tempo na vida cotidiana das mulheres. No Chile, os estudos sobre o tempo vêm contribuindo para visualizar os problemas que as mulheres enfrentam na gestão do tempo na sua vida cotidiana, mas vêm relegando a um segundo plano a relevância da agência para a experiência temporal. Este artigo introduz o conceito trabalho temporal para mostrar empiricamente as estratégias que as mulheres chilenas realizam na configuração de sua experiência do tempo na vida cotidiana. Conclui-se que, apesar da relevância da agência para a experiência do temporal das mulheres no Chile, esta continuaria sendo amplamente determinada pelas desigualdades e assimetrias da organização social do tempo e por suas contradições relacionais, institucionais e estruturais

Individuación y políticas sociales en Chile

Este artículo analiza los procesos de individuación de beneficiarios del Programa “Fondo Solidario de Vivienda” del Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo, desde la experiencia nuevas propietarias en la comuna de Lo Espejo. A partir de un estudio de caso en el condominio “Los Parques”, este artículo presenta una reflexión sobre el vínculo que se establece entre los programas sociales y los procesos de autoafirmación en torno a las trayectorias habitacionales, contribuyendo así al debate entre subjetividad y políticas sociales en Chile. El análisis de los procesos de individuación nos conducirá a afirmar que la política social se constituye como un soporte vital en la consolidación de los proyectos biográficos vinculados a la vivienda, pero que al mismo tiempo, limita la construcción subjetiva de las trayectorias habitacionales y los procesos de autoafirmación individuales a partir de ellas.Cet article analyse les processus d’individuation des bénéficiaires du Programme “Fond Solidaire de Logement » du Ministère du Logement et Urbanisme, à partir de l’expérience de nouvelles propriétaires dans la commune de Lo Espejo. Partant d’une étude de cas dans le condominium « Los Parques », cet article expose une réflexion sur le lien qui s’établit entre les programmes sociaux et les processus d’auto-affirmation portant sur les trajectoires de logement, contribuant de la sorte au débat entre subjectivité et politiques sociales au Chili. L’analyse des processus d’individuation nous amène à affirmer que la politique sociale se constitue comme une plateforme vitale dans la consolidation de projets biographiques liés au logement, mais en même temps, elle limite la construction subjective des trajectoires de logement et les processus d’auto-affirmation individuels à partir de celles-ci.This article analyzes the individuation processes of beneficiaries of the Program “Fondo Solidario de Vivienda”, of the ‘Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo’, from the experience of new homeowners in Lo Espejo. From a case study in “Los Parques” condominium, this article explores the linkage between social programs and self-affirmation processes in housing trajectories, contributing thus to the debate between subjectivity and social policies in Chile. The analysis of the individuation processes will lead us to affirm that social policy constitutes a vital support in the consolidation of the biographical projects linked to housing, but at the same time, limits the subjective construction of the housing trajectories and the self-affirmation processes that emerge from them.O presente artigo analisa os processos de individuação dos beneficiários do Programa "Fondo Solidario de Vivienda", do Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo, com a experiência das novas proprietárias em Lo Espejo. A partir de um estudo de caso em o condomínio "Los Parques", este artigo apresenta uma reflexão sobre a articulação entre programas sociais e os processos de auto-afirmação em trajetórias habitacionais, contribuindo então para o debate entre subjetividade e políticas sociais no Chile. A análise dos processos de individuação nos levará a afirmar que a política social constitui um apoio fundamental na consolidação dos projetos biográficos ligados à moradia, mas ao mesmo tempo, limita a construção subjetiva das trajetórias de habitação e os processos de auto-afirmação que emergem a partir deles

Más allá de la distribución. Estudio empírico de la valoración y las diferencias de género en el uso del tiempo

The Santiago Life Survey (EVES in Spanish) contains questions on the valuations of time use, understood as the evaluation and desirability of its distribution. The results show that these evaluations do not always coincide with the objective distributions, and that there is a contrast between how the uses of time are evaluated and how people want them to be. This occurs for certain activities and with marked gender differences. Women, for example, do not want to dedicate less time to childcare, even though they say they dedicate too much to it. These discrepancies show the need to consider the norms that guide the valuation of time use and not only how it is unequally distributed. Such norms not only reinforce gender inequalities, but also challenge them.La Encuesta Vivir en Santiago (EVES) contiene preguntas sobre las valoraciones del uso del tiempo, entendidas como la evaluación y deseabilidad de su distribución. Los resultados muestran que dichas valoraciones no coinciden siempre con las distribuciones objetivas, y que hay un contraste entre cómo se evalúan los usos del tiempo y cómo se desea que ellos sean. Esto ocurre para determinadas actividades y con marcadas diferencias de género. Las mujeres, por ejemplo, no desean dedicarle menos tiempo al cuidado de los hijos, aunque digan dedicarles demasiado. Estas discrepancias muestran la necesidad de considerar las normas que guían la valoración del uso del tiempo y no solo cómo este se distribuye desigualmente. Dichas normas no solo refuerzan las desigualdades de género, sino que también las desafían

Revisiting individualization: The transitions to marriage and motherhood in Chile

The life course of Chilean women has experienced profound transformations in the past decades. It has been argued that transitions to marriage and motherhood are being postponed as they are experienced by women at an older age and are becoming events that characterize an increasingly smaller part of the female population. These changes have been often interpreted as part of a process of individualization that would have had reconfigured the cultural norms and social practices regarding gender roles and family formation in Chilean society. Nevertheless, the prevalence and diversification of the practices and norms that shape the transitions to marriage and motherhood at an empirical level remain unexplored. This paper aims to assess the individualization of the life course of women in Chile by empirically analyzing the destandardization of the practices and norms that shape the transitions to marriage and motherhood. By analyzing data from Encuesta Nacional Bicentenario Universidad Católica – Adimark (2009), it demonstrates that changes in the prevalence of the transitions to marriage and motherhood and the diversification of the practices and norms that shape their timing are ambivalent regarding destandardization. These results suggest that the life course of women in Chile is becoming individualized to some extent, but that this trend of cultural and social change is not consistent and uniform, but rather partial and fragmented, nonlinear, and significantly conditioned by the social structure

El tiempo de las mujeres en Chile: repensar la agencia

In contemporary societies, a set of social and cultural transformations has made the use and distribution of time in the everyday life of women problematic. In Chile, studies of time have contributed to making visible the problems that women face in managing time in their daily lives, but have relegated the relevance of agency for temporal experience to a position of secondary importance. This article introduces the concept of temporal work to show empirically the strategies that Chilean women deploy in the configuration of their experience of time in everyday life. It concludes that, despite the relevance of agency for women's experience of the temporal in Chile, it will continue to be widely determined by the inequalities and asymmetries of the social organization of time and its contradictions in terms of relationships, institutions and structures.Nas sociedades contemporâneas, um conjunto de transformações sociais e culturais têm tornado problemáticos o uso e a distribuição do tempo na vida cotidiana das mulheres. No Chile, os estudos sobre o tempo vêm contribuindo para visualizar os problemas que as mulheres enfrentam na gestão do tempo na sua vida cotidiana, mas vêm relegando a um segundo plano a relevância da agência para a experiência temporal. Este artigo introduz o conceito trabalho temporal para mostrar empiricamente as estratégias que as mulheres chilenas realizam na configuração de sua experiência do tempo na vida cotidiana. Conclui-se que, apesar da relevância da agência para a experiência do temporal das mulheres no Chile, esta continuaria sendo amplamente determinada pelas desigualdades e assimetrias da organização social do tempo e por suas contradições relacionais, institucionais e estruturais.En las sociedades contemporáneas, un conjunto de transformaciones sociales y culturales han vuelto problemáticos el uso y distribución del tiempo en la vida cotidiana de las mujeres. En Chile, los estudios sobre el tiempo han contribuido a visibilizar los problemas que las mujeres enfrentan en la gestión del tiempo en su vida cotidiana, pero han relegado a un segundo plano la relevancia de la agencia para la experiencia temporal. Este artículo introduce el concepto trabajo temporal para mostrar empíricamente las estrategias que las mujeres chilenas despliegan en la configuración de su experiencia del tiempo en la vida cotidiana. Se concluye que, a pesar de la relevancia de la agencia para la experiencia temporal de las mujeres en Chile, ésta continuaría siendo ampliamente determinada por las desigualdades y asimetrías de la organización social del tiempo y sus contradicciones relacionales, institucionales y estructurales

Las perspectivas temporales de los chilenos: Un estudio empírico sobre la dimensión subjetiva del tiempo

Time is a symbolic means that enables the coordination between subjectivities and social systems in late modernity. In Chile, the study of social time constitute and emerging feld with challenges which need to be addressed in order to interpret some of the problems posed by the organization of time in advanced capitalist societies. Tis article aims to advance a conceptual refection of the complexity of social time and an empirical approach to its subjective dimension by describing the results of a study on the temporal perspectives of Chileans. Tis study shows that time is organized at a subjective level according to qualitative parameters that are socially heterogeneous, that diverge between social groups, that have efects on behavior, and that are strongly constrained by social structure. Tis paper aims to contribute to consolidate a feld of study on social time in Chile and to stress the explanatory potential of time to understand current changes in Chilean society.El tiempo es un medio simbólico que permite la coordinación entre subjetividades y sistemas sociales en la modernidad tardía. En Chile, los estudios sobre el tiempo social constituyen un campo emergente con desafíos que es necesario abordar para poder interpretar algunos de los problemas planteados por la organización del tiempo en las sociedades del capitalismo avanzado. Este artículo busca avanzar en una refexión conceptual de la complejidad del tiempo social y en una aproximación empírica de su dimensión subjetiva a partir de la descripción de los resultados de un estudio sobre las perspectivas temporales de los chilenos. Este estudio permite dar cuenta de que el tiempo es organizado a nivel subjetivo de acuerdo a parámetros cualitativos que son socialmente heterogéneos, que divergen entre grupos sociales, que tienen efectos sobre el comportamiento, y que están fuertemente condicionados por la estructura social. Este artículo busca contribuir a la consolidación de un campo de estudios sobre el tiempo social en Chile y otorgar una mayor potencia explicativa al tiempo en la compresión de los actuales cambios de la sociedad chilena

Midiendo el tiempo, valorando la temporalidad: Análisis conceptual y metodológico de encuestas sobre tiempo y temporalidad en Chile

There are few instruments in Chile aimed specifically at measuring the time dimension of social life. This contrasts with the large amount of data on this dimension that is unknown to researchers and public policy makers because it is located in surveys with objectives other than the one mentioned. This article makes this data recognizable. Covering exhaustively the period 2000-20018, it does so based on a classification matrix, based on conceptual distinctions such as "time" and "temporality" or between "description" and "valuation". This analysis also takes a critical look at the absences and biases in these data. We conclude that the empirical information available in Chile on the time dimension has increased during the period considered; that most of the questions privilege the measurement of "time" over "temporality"; and that this information focuses on the description of the distribution and frequency of activities over time, rather than on their valuation. In dialogue with acceleration theory and systems theory, the article concludes by showing the relevance of broadening the semantic horizon of studies on the temporal dimension, taking them beyond the focus on the objectivist description of time.Existen pocos instrumentos en Chile destinados al objetivo específico de medir la dimensión temporal de la vida social. Ello contrasta con la gran cantidad de data sobre dicha dimensión que resulta desconocida para investigadores, investigadoras y hacedores de políticas públicas por ubicarse en encuestas con objetivos distintos al mencionado. Este artículo hace reconocible dicha data, abarcando de manera exhaustiva el periodo 2000-2018 a partir de una matriz de clasificación, sustentada en distinciones conceptuales como “tiempo” y “temporalidad” o entre “descripción” y “valoración”. Este análisis también hace una mirada crítica de las ausencias y sesgos que tienen esos datos. Concluimos que la información empírica disponible en Chile sobre la dimensión temporal ha incrementado en el transcurso del periodo considerado; que la mayoría de las preguntas privilegia la medición del “tiempo” por sobre la “temporalidad” y; que esa información se enfoca en la descripción de la distribución y la frecuencia de actividades en el tiempo, más que en su valoración. En diálogo con la teoría de la aceleración y la teoría de sistemas, el artículo finaliza mostrando la relevancia de ampliar el horizonte semántico de los estudios sobre la dimensión temporal, llevándolos más allá del foco en la descripción objetivista del tiempo