Human Reproduction Study Group Annual Conference
18 May 2026
De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
About the Event
How do women in modern Britain experience ‘becoming a mother’? So asked a modest grant proposal to the ESRC (then the SSRC) in 1973, calling for ‘planned and organized research into the
social/psychological/emotional aspects of women’s transitions to motherhood’. Successful, Ann Oakley went on to lead a ground-breaking study, and later associated studies, which established both motherhood (as a social institution) and mothering (as social practice) as subjects that warranted academic attention in their own right.
Following the award of a new grant from the ESRC, a team of us at UCL, including Ann Oakley herself, are revisiting this research - prompting us to reflect on what it means to carry out a project over a period of 50 years: what are the methodological, practical and ethical challenges of this sort of enterprise? The project – 50 Years of Becoming a Mother – examines continuities and changes in women’s transition to first-time motherhood.
This involves secondary data analysis (of original study materials); longitudinal ‘follow-up’ research with the original sample of women (as well as interviews with some of their daughters and granddaughters); and ‘repeat’ studies with new cohorts of mothers at separate intervals. But how does collecting data on reproductive and parenting experiences in the mid-2020s compare with the same project 50 years ago?
In our presentation we focus on how the research process itself has altered over this period, and on the intersections between research practices, on the one hand, and changes in the social context, on the other. In offering a social history of a research project, and presenting early findings both from our secondary data analysis and new round of 'follow ups', the paper contributes to the corpus of studies on motherhood and parenting, as well as studies of the study of motherhood and parenting.
Over the past 24 years, the conference has attracted national and international speakers from emerging, early career, and experienced researchers based at universities, and those working in the field.
Plenary Speakers
Prof Charlotte Faircloth and Dr Rachel Arkell on 'Fifty Years of ‘Becoming a Mother’: reflections on motherhood research over half a century
Speaker Biographies
- Prof Charlotte Faircloth is Professor of Family and Society at the UCL Social Research Institute, and Co-Director of the Thomas Coram Research Unit. She is the Programme Leader of the BAM50 project, with Co-Is Ann Oakley and Meg Wiggins. She is a key contributor to Parenting Culture Studies, an inter-disciplinary field that situates 'parenting' as a key topic for understanding contemporary society. Her anthropological research, focusing on reproduction and parenting, has covered topics including infant feeding, couple relationships, inter-generational relations, and most recently, the impact of coronavirus on family life.
- Dr Rachel Arkell is a socio-legal researcher with an LLM in Medical Law and Ethics, MA in Methods of Social Research, and LLB in European Legal Studies from the University of Kent. She completed her SeNSS (ESRC) funded doctoral research at the University of Kent, exploring the communication of risk with regards to medication use during (potential) pregnancy post Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015]. To date, her research has focused on the social and legal treatment of 'contentious' behaviour during pregnancy, including alcohol and medication use. Throughout her doctoral studies, Rachel worked at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the UK's largest independent abortion provider, as a Projects and Research Officer.
Venue Details
The conference is hosted by the Centre for Reproduction Research and will take place at De Montfort University, Leicester in Trinity House Chapel and Boardroom.
The city of Leicester is located an hour from London and is easily accessible by both rail and road and is well served by East Midlands and Birmingham airport.
Registration
- Student BSA Member: £30
- Student non-BSA Member: £35
- BSA Member: £40
- Non-BSA Member: £45
If there is interest, a post-conference meal or informal self-funded drinks will be organised for the Monday evening.