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Department of Social Sciences

Lecture: "When Compatibility Becomes Individualized"

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On September 10 and 11, the interdisciplinary doctoral workshop “Reproductive Solidarities” took place at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. In addition to the presentation and discussion of the various projects, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rajani Bhatia (University at Albany) delivered a keynote address.

In her presentation, “When Compatibility Becomes Individualized: Social Freezing and the Burden of Reproductive Self-Responsibility,” Isabelle Bosbach discussed how social freezing transforms a structural problem of balancing career, partnership, and the (potential) desire to have children into an individual task of biographical time management. Medical knowledge about age-related fertility addresses women as responsible agents of preventive care who are expected to secure their reproductive future in a timely manner. Drawing on interviews, she demonstrated how women navigate this responsibility amid clinical counseling, informal online communities, paid work, and personal relationships—and what uncertainties, gaps in counseling, and forms of concealment arise in the process.