Barbara Katz Rothman (born 1948) is a professor of sociology and women's studies at the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

(CUNY). Her work encompasses medical sociology, childbirth and midwifery,

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, med ...

, race, disability, food studies, and the sociology of knowledge.

Biography

Barbara Katz Rothman was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 1948. She received her

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

and

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

degrees from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

and in 1979 a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in sociology from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. In 1979, she became a faculty member of Baruch College and the

Graduate Center of the City University of New York The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...

. She was one of the first sociologists to look seriously at childbirth, resulting in her dissertation and first book, ''In Labor''. She moved on to study issues in prenatal diagnosis, and the consequences of the newly developing technologies of amniocentesis and other

genetic testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

in pregnancy for the women involved, resulting in ''The Tentative Pregnancy''. In 1987, she joined other feminists of the time, including

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in ...

Betty Friedan Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book ''The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...

, Phyllis Chesler,

Mary Daly Mary Daly (October 16, 1928–January 3, 2010) was an American radical feminist philosopher and theologian. Daly, who described herself as a "radical lesbian feminist", taught at the Jesuit-run Boston College for 33 years. Once a practicing Rom ...

, and

Evelyn Fox Keller Evelyn Fox Keller (born March 20, 1936) is an American physicist, author and feminist. She is Professor Emerita of History and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Keller's early work concentrated at the intersecti ...

to write an ''amicus'' brief opposing

surrogacy Surrogacy is an arrangement, often supported by a legal agreement, whereby a woman agrees to delivery/labour for another person or people, who will become the child's parent(s) after birth. People may seek a surrogacy arrangement when pregnan ...

in the Baby M case. The brief argues that allowing women to charge a fee for bearing another couple's child would lead to their exploitation having been reduced to a commodity. The Baby M case signified an advancement in reproductive technology and was the impetus for ''Recreating Motherhood: Ideology and Technology in a Patriarchical Society'', published in 1989. In the book, Katz Rothman emphasizes the social, political and technological implications of birthing and raising a child in a patriarchal society. She discusses the legal parental rights of the birth mother and child-care providers and argues for a shift in reproductive practices in order to reflect the collective experiences of women. In 1991, she was awarded the

Jessie Bernard Award {{refimprove, date=July 2022 The Jessie Bernard Award is given by the American Sociological Association in recognition of scholarly work that has enlarged the horizons of sociology to encompass fully the role of women in society. The contribution ...

by the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...

for ''Recreating Motherhood.'' In 1993, she was president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, which has awarded her the Lee Founders Award in 2006, and the Mentoring Award in 2019. In 1995, she was awarded a Fulbright Professorship to the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

, in the Netherlands. In 1998, she was the president of the Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS), from which she won the Mentoring Award in 1995 and the SWS Feminist Lecturer Award in 1988. She also received an award for “Midwifing the Movement” from the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) in 2012. She was the president of the

Eastern Sociological Society Eastern Sociological Society is a non-profit organization with a mission of "promoting excellence in sociological scholarship and instruction". It publishes a peer-reviewed journal (Sociological Forum) and holds a yearly academic conference An ac ...

for the 2016 presidential term, and was the recipient of the Fulbright-Saastamoinen Foundation Distinguished Chair in Health Sciences 2018–2019.

Journals and popular media

Barbara Katz Rothman is widely published in both popular and scholarly sources, including ''Social Problems'', ''Virtual Mentor of the AMA'', ''MIDIRS Midwifery Digest'', ''Annual Review of Health Sciences of Australia'', ''The Japanese Midwifery Journal'', ''The MT. Sinai Journal of Medicine'', ''Gender & Society'', ''Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy'', ''NOVA Law Review'', ''The Journal of Bioethical Inquiry'', ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', ''MS.'', ''Glamour'', ''European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology'', ''MAMM'', ''Conscience'', ''Midwifery Today'', and ''Legal Affairs''. Katz Rothman coined the term "midwifery model" to distinguish the work of home birth midwives from standard medical practice around birth, the "medical model."

Books

Reference Notes

External links

*
Barbara Katz Rothman
at Baruch College
Leverhulme Visiting ProfessorshipsHealth Vision: Giving Birth in the United States, a discussion with Barbara Katz RothmanHealth Vision: Prenatal Testing, a discussion with Barbara Katz Rothman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rothman, Barbara Katz 1948 births Living people Jewish women writers Jewish American academics Jewish American activists Jewish American non-fiction writers Activists for African-American civil rights American women non-fiction writers American women sociologists American women science writers Medical sociologists Baruch College faculty CUNY Graduate Center faculty Brooklyn College alumni Disability studies academics