Gender, Class, and the Political Economy of Reproductive Change in Puerto Rico

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This project studies the decline of fertility in Puerto Rico during the first 40 years after the 1898 occupation by the United States, the earliest and most dramatic fertility decline in Latin America. This interdisciplinary project will examine the driving forces behind this decline, focusing on post-1898 changes in the realm of work and labor, gender relations, and marital and domestic arrangements that gave rise to class-specific reproductive behavior. The project will construct a sample of 1600 women stratified by class and time period; draw a sub-sample of 160 women who appear in judicial proceedings records; and contextualize the data with records and information from civil and religious archives. The project will test hypotheses relating a women's decreasing fertility to her increasing economic status and autonomy Broader Impact: By bringing together scholars from cultural anthropology, sociology, demography, and history, this project represents broad based and systemic interdisciplinary research. The project will strengthen the integration of research, teaching, and training by fostering the teaching of new undergraduate and graduate courses at The University of Pittsburgh; strengthening the Departmental High School Apprenticeship Program at the University of Pittsburgh (in which local high school students are introduced to contemporary issues in anthropology); broadening the scope of anthropology internships by means of which undergraduate majors at the University of Pittsburgh actively participate in faculty research projects; and sponsoring an interdisciplinary conference to be held at the University of Pittsburgh, which will bring together scholars from anthropology, history, sociology, and demography for a comprehensive survey of scholarship to generate new research agendas focusing on Puerto Rico.