The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted questions about individuals’ fertility intentions and decisions during such a large-scale, drawn-out crisis. In this paper, I ask how women who have not (yet) had children and who are nearing the end of their timeline for parenthood are making sense of the pandemic. Drawing on novel in-depth interview data conducted during the pandemic with over 100 women aged 35–50 in the United States who are childless for a variety of reasons, I argue that the pandemic has produced a shared sense of “gendered uncertainty” by exacerbating both preexisting worries about motherhood and unease about the future. As the data further reveal, the pandemic has therefore been conceived of by many childless women as a good time to not have children, particularly in light of the United States’ weak infrastructure of family support. These findings contribute to existing theoretical frameworks of fertility change by foregrounding women's subjective evaluations of their reproductive options during a time of upheaval and introducing the important role of gendered uncertainty in shaping reproductive sense-making. Findings also contribute to the literature on childlessness by demonstrating how childlessness can gain newfound appeal as a family status during turbulent times.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 和美国妇女的无子女问题

在如此大规模、旷日持久的危机中，COVID-19 大流行引发了人们对个人生育意图和决定的质疑。在这篇论文中，我询问那些（还）没有孩子和即将结束生育时间的女性如何理解这种流行病。根据在大流行期间对美国 100 多名因各种原因没有孩子的 35-50 岁女性进行的新颖的深度访谈数据，我认为大流行通过加剧既有对母性的担忧，也有对未来的不安。正如数据进一步显示的那样，许多没有孩子的女性因此将大流行视为不生孩子的好时机，特别是考虑到美国家庭支持基础设施薄弱。这些发现突出了女性在动荡时期对其生育选择的主观评价，并引入了性别不确定性在塑造生育意义的重要作用，从而为现有的生育率变化理论框架做出了贡献。调查结果还通过展示无子女如何在动荡时期作为一种家庭地位获得新的吸引力，从而对无子女文献做出贡献。