Stuck in the Waiting Room: An Analytical Essay Exploring Infertility at Work

Abstract

In this analytical essay, we use our embodied career experiences to explore infertility at work, placing our “infertile body” at the center of analysis. We consider the ways in which infertility has impacted our identities, careers, and timelines. By laying bare our experiences of battling infertility while trying to maintain a career in academia, we illustrate how infertility introduces a liminality that “leaks” across domains: shaping identity, distorting temporality, and ultimately reshaping how we engage with our careers. After years of infertility, we found ourselves in a state of “career liminality,” where our agency and sense of self became so eroded that proactively managing our careers was no longer possible. We highlight infertility as a major, yet under-recognized, contextual factor shaping women's career progression, and suggest that this area demands urgent scholarly attention. In breaking our silence, we aim to open a conversation and encourage other scholars to develop this conversation further.