ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors draw attention to ‘normal reproduction’ as a socially constructed phenomenon and a sociologically interesting topic of study. They suggests that their knowledge concerning some central events and phenomena in our social world, such as sex, marriage, and reproduction, is of the ‘thinking as usual’ type described by A. Schutz. By studying apparent deviations from cultural norms authors may clarify and highlight the ‘normal’, but they may also fail to recognize the social construction of the normal as well as of the deviation, and provide sociological explanations for deviation but not for non-deviation. One crucial social/sexual division in our society is that between married and unmarried persons. As J. Busfield points out, in modern British society-there is an especially strong socialization of women into the desirability of marriage and motherhood. The authors address the issue of the attribution and avowal of motives, instincts, and responses towards pregnancy and motherhood.
