[Back to home page for Demography 200 / Sociology 220]

Alternative Paths into Parenthood

The title given to this section of the course requires some dissecting. If there are “alternative” paths into parenthood, they exist in opposition to some set of “traditional,” “regular,” or “common” paths. Perhaps such a dichotomy is an oversimplification, but it is useful here as a means of focusing our attention on a specific set of seemingly disparate topics.

The only widely available path to parenthood in most human societies has been through sexual intercourse in the context of some sort of heterosexual union. A recurrent theme in demography and sociology over the past several decades has been the diversification of family forms that occurred during the latter half of the twentieth century. That diversification has involved mostly changes in household and living arrangements as a result of an increased occurrence of marital dissolution and remarriage. Such trends have implications for the conditions under which children grow up, and thus they are a source of concern for analysts and policymakers. The important point, for the distinction we are making here, is that the events driving these changes in household and living arrangements (i.e., divorce and remarriage) typically occur after children have been born, and thus children experience these events as members of the family. In the alternative paths we are considering here, the driving events occur either before children are born or before they become members of the family in question (in the case of adoption).

Thus, our definition of alternative paths into parenthood includes at least one route, adoption, that has a very long tradition. Perhaps fittingly, adoption stands out among these alternative paths for being characterized by decline rather than by increase in recent decades. The future of adoption is uncertain, of course, and it interacts with trends in the other alternative paths to parenthood, which have tended to grow more common in recent years.

Among the emergent alternative paths, the most prominent is the rising number of single individuals who become parents. In recent decades in many industrialized countries (including the United States) there has been a large and rapid increase in the proportion of births that occur outside of marriage. A common model in European countries is for couples to have children together without bothering to get married. In the United States, however, this practice is less common, and most births that occur outside of marriage follow another pattern. In some cases such births may be the product of a weak heterosexual union that either dissolved before the birth occurred or in any case did not grow stronger in the direction of marriage. In other cases intercourse and conception may have occurred without even the pretense of a long-term relationship between the two participants. In yet other cases technologies may have removed the need for contact between the donors of egg and sperm. All of these examples (except the European one) share in common that the birth occurs to a single person (a woman), who by choice or by default will have primary responsibility for raising it.

Except adoption, the alternative paths to parenthood that we are considering here are the product of rapid changes in both reproductive technologies and social values during recent decades. Most fundamentally, technology has created the possibility of conception and pregnancy without intercourse (whether via artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, or some other technique). It has simultaneously created a demand for surrogate mothers, whose wombs serve as the natural incubators that technology may be far from mimicking. The availability of such technologies has facilitated the social re-definition of who is allowed to have children or start families. They make it easier for single people in general (though mostly women) to become parents. But they also are opening the door to parenthood to an increasing number of lesbian and gay couples (or individuals).

To some extent all of these alternative paths exist on the edges of mainstream society, whether because they involve groups that have traditionally been disenfranchised in various ways or because they raise difficult legal and ethical issues. However, as such practices become more prevalent in the population, the call becomes louder for legal and social reforms to smooth and safeguard the path for those involved (parents, children, and others). Although the diversification of family forms due to divorce and remarriage could arguably have never been stopped – because the right of adults to pursue their own happiness inevitably trumped competing (though contentious) arguments about the negative consequences of such behaviors on children’s well-being. However, the further diversification that is occurring now around these alternative paths into parenthood could prove to be more amenable to regulation via laws that ban some or all of these practices. Such laws might be no more effective than earlier attempts to snuff out divorce, or they might find much greater political support since they would be restricting the creation of family units rather than attempting to prevent their inevitable breakup.

[Back to home page for Demography 200 / Sociology 220]