Deck 22: Facets of Agency in Stories of Transforming From Childless by Choice to Mother

Question 1

Moore attributes the declining birthrates in the United States to all of the following except ______.

A) delays in marriage and childbearing
B) access to abortion and oral contraceptives for adults and minors
C) weakening family values
D) women's increased participation in the labor force

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What is agency? How does Moore see agency in relation to the choice of motherhood?

Answer 2

Varies. May include the following:
-Agency describes self-definition and self-direction where self-conception is always informed by social relations and the ability to follow through on goals without dissuasion.
-Agency in the choice of motherhood encompasses desires and intentions and the constraints that make those possible.
-Agency accounts for how and why individuals make choices within contexts.

Question 3

Why is it difficult to ascertain clear statistics on how many women are voluntarily childless?

A) Many large-scale surveys do not allow women to differentiate between being voluntarily childfree, delaying childbearing, or unable to bear children.
B) Many large-scale surveys do not ask about childbearing or parenthood.
C) There is not a clear definition on what it means to be voluntarily childless.
D) It is not difficult to gather clear statistics on voluntarily childless women; the data is easy to gather and make sense of.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Despite cultural expectations that becoming a mother is NOT a distinct and purposeful choice, Moore describes a study that found that, when making this choice, women tend to consider all of the following except ______.

A) whether they are mature enough to be a mother
B) whether their financial situation would support parenthood and children
C) whether both partners were ready for parenthood
D) whether motherhood would negatively impact their appearance

Question 5

Women who make the choice to never have children at a young age are described as ______.

A) early articulators
B) unconventionalists
C) child-avoidant
D) time-persistent

Question 6

What does Moore's study contribute to existing theoretical concepts about changing fertility intentions?

A) Moore's study accounts for accidental conception.
B) Moore's study confirms women's purposeful intentions to have children.
C) Moore's study demonstrates that women follow Bernardi's typology in a linear fashion.
D) Moore's study suggests for the first time that women make choices to have children or to not have children.

Question 7

Moore argues that women who are NOT parents are often regarded as ______, whereas women who are parents are regarded as ______.

A) yet to make the decision to become a mother; having made the choice to be a mother already
B) having made an unconventional choice; having chosen a more traditional route
C) having made no choice at all; having chosen a more traditional, conventional route
D) having made an unnatural unconventional choice; having made no choice at all

Question 8

Although many of the women in Moore's study became accidentally pregnant, these women did not pursue an abortion. What are three reasons described by Moore as to why these women did not terminate their pregnancies?

Question 9

Moore concluded that childbearing desires are ______.

A) the same for all women
B) determined by cultural pressures
C) innate
D) neither innate nor determined by cultural pressures

Question 10

In addition to having at least one child who was one year old or older, what other inclusion criteria did Moore have for her study participants?

A) Participants' children needed to be either biological or adopted.
B) Participants needed to have previously told other people that they never wanted to have children.
C) Participants needed to admit to regretting having children.
D) Participants needed to have felt in the past that they never wanted to have children.