Waithood

The concept of “Waithood” was developed by political scientist Diane Singerman to describe the expanding period of time between adolescence and full adulthood as young people wait to secure steady employment and marry. The contributors to this volume employ the waithood concept as a frame for richly detailed ethnographic studies of “youth in waiting” from a variety of world areas, including the Middle East Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the U.S, revealing that whether voluntary or involuntary, the phenomenon of youth waithood necessitates a recognition of new gender and family roles.

The concept of “Waithood” was developed by political scientist Diane Singerman to describe the expanding period of time between adolescence and full adulthood as young people wait to secure steady employment and marry. The contributors to this volume employ the waithood concept as a frame for richly detailed ethnographic studies of “youth in waiting” from a variety of world areas, including the Middle East Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the U.S, revealing that whether voluntary or involuntary, the phenomenon of youth waithood necessitates a recognition of new gender and family roles.

List of Figures

Introduction: Waithood: Gender, Education, and Global Delays in Marriage and Childbearing
Nancy J. Smith-Hefner and Marcia C. Inhorn

Part I: Waithood, Statehood, and the Struggle for Dignity

Chapter 1. Youth, Economics, and the Politics of Waithood: The Struggle for Dignity in the Middle East and North Africa
Diane Singerman

Chapter 2. “Trusting is a Dicey Affair”: Muslim Youth, Gender Relations, and Future-Making in Southwestern Uganda
Dorothea E. Schulz

Chapter 3. Waiting at the Fada: Young Men, “Tea Circles,” and Delayed Adulthood in Niger
Adeline Masquelier

Chapter 4. Emergent Waithood: Institutions and Marriage Delays among Mayan Women in Guatemala
Nicole S. Berry

Part II: Gender, Education, and the Aspiration for Autonomy

Chapter 5. Active Waithood: Youthmen, Fatherhood, and Men’s Educational Aspirations in Sierra Leone
Kristen E. McLean

Chapter 6. “Giving Oneself Time”: Marriage and Motherhood in Urban Rwanda
Aalyia Feroz Ali Sadruddin

Chapter 7. Tactics of Marriage Delay in China: Education, Rural-to-Urban Migration, and “Leftover Women”
Zachary M. Howlett

Chapter 8. Too Educated to Marry? Muslim Women and Extended Singlehood in Indonesia
Nancy J. Smith-Hefner

Part III: Delayed Marriage and the Meanings of Singlehood

Chapter 9. Conjugal Conundrums: Conversion and Marriage Delay in the Contemporary Caribbean
Brendan Jamal Thornton

Chapter 10. Between Cynicism and Idealism: Voluntary Waithood in Iran
Mehrdad Babadi

Chapter 11. Refusing to Settle: Migration among Single Professional Women in Jordan
Fida Adely

Chapter 12. Never-Married Women in India: Gendered Life Courses, Desires, and Identities in Flux
Sarah Lamb

Part IV: Delayed Childbearing and the Quest for Motherhood

Chapter 13. Blamed for Delay: French Norms and Practices of ART in the Context of Increasing Age-Related Female Infertility
Manon Vialle

Chapter 14. Waiting Too Long to Mother: Involuntary Childlessness and Assisted Reproduction in Contemporary Spain
Beatriz San Román

Chapter 15. The Egg Freezing Revolution? Gender, Education, and Reproductive Waithood in America
Marcia C. Inhorn

Conclusion: Waithood in the Twenty-First Century
Marcia C. Inhorn and Nancy J. Smith-Hefner

Index