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Paper short abstract:

This paper considers the political economic axes in which maternal health, wellbeing and employment intersect. Quality and tempo-spatial realities of jobs impact access to rights and care. Maternal choices and outcomes are curtailed by both lacking and unenforced policies, eroding gender justice.

Paper long abstract:

This paper studies the relationship between maternal health, wellbeing and employment for a reproductive justice lens. It considers how the scope and findings of feminist economic scholarship may be embraced by reproductive justice scholarship. Taking Turkey as a case-study, in-person interviews (n=26), a survey (n=162) and online discourse analysis find that the qualitative aspects of work, situated within broader economic and social policies, affect reproductive justice via the extent to which personal and parental decisions can be enacted during pregnancy, postpartum and childrearing periods. Inadequate wages and inflexibility, within a context of low childcare provision and high unpaid labour burdens negatively impact maternal employment and health outcomes. Informality may appear to provide flexibility, but can come at the cost of legal employment rights and healthcare access. Exclusion from certain social protections further erode direct and indirect reproductive rights of foreigners and ethnic minorities.

Micro-factors such as employment opportunities, potential and real income; tempo-spatial realities of jobs, and household budget dynamics along with wider macro-factors such as the general economic outlook of a country; employment protections for pregnancy and carers; welfare policies; and inflation and currency issues should be analysed within gender justice. They affect the pregnancy and postpartum experiences of women, they affect women’s ability to reconcile desired fertility choices with actual fertility choices and they affect the autonomy of mothers where employment conditions are harsh or rigid. Gender justice scholarship and policies should consider maternal health/wellbeing and employment, as well as how quality and location of employment.