Boertien, DiederikCortina Trilla, ClaraLozano, Mariona2024-09-232024-09-232024Boertien D, Cortina C, Lozano M. Pathways and obstacles to parenthood among women in same-sex couples in Spain. Demogr Res. 2024 Jan-Jun;50:1039-70. DOI: 10.4054/DEMRES.2024.50.351435-9871http://hdl.handle.net/10230/61201BACKGROUND: Even though same-sex couples face clear obstacles to parenthood, little is known about the extent to which preferences and obstacles can explain the lower levels of parenthood among individuals in same-sex couples. OBJECTIVE: The objective is to document routes into parenthood and to quantify the gap between observed and desired number of children among women in different-sex and same-sex couples in Spain. METHODS: We use the representative 2018 Spanish fertility survey, which includes 14,556 women, of whom 139 are in a same-sex couple. We use coarsened exact matching techniques to match women across couple types who are identical on a set of observable characteristics. RESULTS: Less than half of women in a same-sex couple had children by the age of 40, as compared to around 80% of women in a different-sex couple. We do not observe changes in rates of parenthood across cohorts of women in same-sex couples, but do observe changes in the pathways followed. Even though women in same-sex couples have lower levels of desired fertility, the gap between desired and realized fertility is larger for women in same-sex couples than for women in different-sex couples. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, results show that obstacles to parenthood are prevalent among women in both different-sex and same-sex couples, but appear particularly high and persistent for the latter. CONTRIBUTION: We are the first to quantify differences in the extent to which parenthood desires are met between women in same-sex and different-sex couples in Spain, using representative data.application/pdfeng© 2024 Diederik Boertien, Clara Cortina & Mariona Lozano. This open-access work is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Germany (CC BY 3.0 DE), which permits use, reproduction, and distribution in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are given credit. See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/legalcode.Parelles lesbianes -- EspanyaParelles homosexuals -- EspanyaMaternitat -- EspanyaFecunditat humana -- Espanya -- Estadístiquesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article2024-09-23http://dx.doi.org/10.4054/DEMRES.2024.50.35info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess