Fertility struggles interact with our careers and emotional wellbeing in ways we might not ever fully recover from. This research explores how women navigate their careers and maintain their wellbeing when the goal of biological parenthood is complicated in ways we didn’t expect and we can’t control. This study compares the cases of a small cohort of white women in their thirties, living in Britain who have struggled with fertility (myself included), in an attempt to understand how our fertility struggle shapes our careers and wellbeing. This research strives to interrogate the usefulness of the Job Demand Control Stress model to understand work-stress and wellbeing, the Common Sense Model of health regulation to explore how women self-manage fertility struggles and wellbeing and a New Materialist approach to understand the role and power of non-human actors, such as medical apparatus and policy. I also employ an intersectional lens to better understand the cohort and review the shortcomings of the models and limitations of this research. / <p>Due to Covid-19 Defences took place online </p>

[pt] O propósito central deste estudo, desenvolvido na área de Administração e, especificamente, no campo dos estudos de carreiras, foi compreender e analisar as influências da origem social no desenvolvimento da carreira médica, tendo como base os relatos das experiências vivenciadas por médicas ginecologistas e obstetras com carreiras consolidadas, atuantes na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. O método de pesquisa história de vida foi empregado para obter as narrativas biográficas das médicas com o intuito de alcançar aspectos subjetivos, culturais, sociais e relacionais de suas vidas e carreiras. As contribuições da abordagem de Pierre Bourdieu aos estudos de carreira alicerçaram o referencial teórico. Os achados sobre o campo médico demonstraram sobreposição de fenômenos sociais que se relacionaram com raça, classe e gênero, além da percepção das entrevistadas sobre as mudanças que vêm ocorrendo nesse campo. Além disso, os relatos evidenciaram que, neste grupo de médicas, as diferenças das origens sociais influenciaram o desenvolvimento de suas carreiras. Os capitais econômico e cultural foram os principais que delinearam as trajetórias — de vida e de carreira — e contribuíram em maior nível para aumentar ou diminuir as oportunidades no campo médico. O capital econômico delimitou as escolhas e os caminhos durante a graduação e no desenvolvimento da carreira, evidenciado em escolhas motivadas pelo aperfeiçoamento profissional ou premidas pela necessidade financeira, que resultaram, por exemplo, no maior ou menor tempo dedicado à educação médica, ou, ainda, na abertura do consultório próprio na fase inicial ou intermediária da carreira. O capital cultural herdado e adquirido nas trajetórias de vida, conexo ao capital social, tornou-se, no contexto do campo médico, capital de carreira, visto que contribuiu para aumentar as oportunidades que as médicas tiveram em suas carreiras e observado nas diferentes posições ocupadas que refletiram os volumes desiguais desses capitais. Os achados do estudo revelaram aspectos do habitus de carreira que podem restringir ou ampliar as estratégias e investimentos relacionados à carreira, sobressaindo-se a herança do habitus da carreira médica, recebida de familiares médicos, aliado ao capital cultural dos pais quando se tornou evidente a importância das relações sociais, das estratégias e das táticas que seriam mais adequadas para se desenvolver e alcançar uma carreira sólida e de sucesso na medicina, antes mesmo da entrada no curso. Os capitais de carreira médica destacados nas trajetórias foram: relações e interações sociais (capital cultural e social); tempo de educação médica (capital cultural e capital econômico); diplomas de instituições (capital cultural e simbólico); experiência acadêmica internacional (capital cultural e econômico). Por fim, destacamos que os contextos das origens sociais das médicas tornaram os caminhos mais ou menos fluídos, reflexo da influência dos distintos volumes e estruturas dos capitais que potencializaram ou atenuaram o mérito individual. / [en] The central purpose of this investigation, developed in Management studies, specifically, within the field of career studies, was to understand and analyze the influences of social origin on the development of the medical career, based on the reports of experiences lived by gynecologists and obstetricians with consolidated careers, working in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The life history research method was used to obtain the biographical narratives of the doctors in order to reach subjective, cultural, social, and relational aspects of their lives and careers. The contributions of Pierre Bourdieu s approach to career studies underpinned the theoretical framework. The findings of the medical field demonstrated an overlap of social phenomena that were related to race, class, and gender, in addition to the interviewees perception of the changes that have been occurring in this field. Furthermore, the reports showed that, in this group of doctors, differences in social origins influenced the development of their careers. The economic and cultural capitals were the main ones that outlined the trajectories —life and career— and contributed most to increase or decrease opportunities in the medical field. Economic capital delimited choices and paths during graduation and career development, evidenced in choices motivated by professional improvement or pressured by financial need, which resulted, for example, in more or less time dedicated to medical education, or even more, in opening their own practice in the initial or intermediate phase of their career. The cultural capital inherited and acquired in life trajectories, connected to social capital, became, in the context of the medical field, career capital, as it contributed to increase the opportunities that doctors had in their careers and observed in the different positions occupied that reflected the unequal volumes of these capitals. The study findings revealed aspects of the career habitus that can restrict or expand career-related strategies and investments, highlighting the inheritance of the medical career habitus, received from medical relatives, combined with the cultural capital of the parents when it became evident the importance of social relationships, strategies, and tactics that would be most suitable for developing and achieving a solid and successful career in medicine, even before entering the undergraduate course. The medical career capitals highlighted in the trajectories were: social relationships and interactions (cultural and social capital); medical education time (cultural capital and economic capital); diplomas from institutions (cultural and symbolic capital); international academic experience (cultural and economic capital). Finally, we highlight that the contexts of the doctors social origins made the paths more or less fluid, reflecting the influence of the different volumes and structures of capitals which enhanced or mitigated the individual merit.