Experiencing and Responding to Existential Vulnerability: Navigating the Work–Fertility Treatment Interface

Abstract

The need to undergo fertility treatment to fulfill parenthood aspirations involves many challenges in professional and personal domains. Extant scholarship has tended to focus on the identity threats and individual experiences of the challenges involved, but research has not delved into the more relational experiences that may characterize such journeys. In our study, we explore women's experiences of undergoing fertility treatment while working full-time through the lens of vulnerability. Our findings highlight how vulnerability is a socially constructed experience that is privately experienced and typically results in changes to how women interact with others. Our work deepens understanding of the work–fertility interface in illustrating how women respond to vulnerability in three distinct but fluid ways—masking, confronting, or succumbing. In doing so, we also offer new insights into the experience of vulnerability. We emphasize the need for organizations to develop policies that support women in a compassionate and discreet manner, reducing their sense of vulnerability both personally and relationally.