title: Obligatory Effort [Hishtadlut] as an Explanatory Model: A Critique of Reproductive Choice and Control.
abstract: Studies on reproductive technologies often examine women's reproductive lives in terms of choice and control. Drawing on 48 accounts of procreative experiences of religiously devout Jewish women in Israel and the US, we examine their attitudes, understandings and experiences of pregnancy, reproductive technologies and prenatal testing. We suggest that the concept of hishtadlut-"obligatory effort"-works as an explanatory model that organizes Haredi women's reproductive careers and their negotiations of reproductive technologies. As an elastic category with negotiable and dynamic boundaries, hishtadlut gives ultra-orthodox Jewish women room for effort without the assumption of control; it allows them to exercise discretion in relation to medical issues without framing their efforts in terms of individual choice. Haredi women hold themselves responsible for making their obligatory effort and not for pregnancy outcomes. We suggest that an alternative paradigm to autonomous choice and control emerges from cosmological orders where reproductive duties constitute "obligatory choices."
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel. mslula@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Elly
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Teman
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Tsipy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ivry
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Heela
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Goren
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000208:ethnology; D007599:Judaism; D008875:Middle Aged; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012099:Reproductive Techniques / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Explanatory models; Moral dilemmas; Religion; Reproductive choice; Reproductive technologies; Ultra orthodox Jewish women