“Potential parenthood” and identity threats: Navigating complex fertility journeys alongside work and employment

Abstract

While many scholars have noted workplace inequalities generated by the presence of pregnancy and parenthood, this paper shifts the focus to explore the question: how do childless subjects negotiate between work identities and desired identities of parenthood? Drawing from empirical research interviews about navigating complex fertility journeys alongside work and employment, we show how themes of pregnancy and parenthood play out in the form of (non-)potential rather than actual achievement, and where identity threats arise paradoxically from both too close and too distant an association with the maternal body.