Using biographies to explore reproduction strategies of Slovak women before and after fall of communism

Michaela Potancokova, University of Groningen

The aim of article is to present the analysis of biographies of Slovak women belonging to different cohorts who experienced motherhood under social contexts of Slovakia in the 1970s and nowadays. We use life course approach and cognitive approach to analyse the biographies, obtained in the in-depth biographical interviews. First we examiny the life histories of women and compare experience of the women belonging to different cohorts – those bearing children in the mid 1970s and those who were born then. Afterwards we analyse perceptions of women on their reproductive careers and mental schmemes of childbeating. We try to present such an analysis on example of two interviews with women living in capital Bratislava. We place personal experience in the context of experience of the whole generation by combining individual qualitative and statistical quantitative data about fertility of Slovak women. Paper is part of pilot study of author’s research project.