Description: "The Reproduction of Inequality examines women's work on their bodies during pregnancy and postpartum; while mothers typically focus on the health benefits of their choices about breastfeeding or prenatal diet and exercise, these practices also display and perpetuate status inequalities from one generation to the next"--
Brief description: Katherine Mason is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Women's & Gender Studies Program at Wheaton College. She is the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment.
Review Quotes: "From gestational diabetes to drinking coffee, The Reproduction of Inequality maps how pregnant bodies are subject to increasingly high levels of medical and moral scrutiny. Theorizing pregnancy, birth, and post-partum conditions through the lens of gendered, classed, and racialized 'reproductive body projects, ' Kate Mason captures the contradictions in the expectations for perfect designer pregnancies in the face of eroded infrastructures for healthcare, childcare, and general support for childbirth and childrearing. Based on rich interviews, this book tells moving, in-depth personal stories while contributing to important debates in sociology, gender studies, and health-related fields"-- "Miliann Kang, author of The Managed Hand: Race, Gender and the Body in Beauty Service Work"