Less Like Magic, More Like a Chore: How Sex for the Purpose of Pregnancy Becomes a Third Shift for Women in Heterosexual Couples*1.

Sexual intimacy characterized by desire is a critical component of the cultural ideal of successful marriage in the contemporary United States. How, then, does the experience of sexual intimacy in committed relationships change when its primary purpose is to promote conception? Through in‐depth interviews with 52 women married to men in the United States who recently attempted—and often struggled—to conceive through sexual intercourse with their spouses, this study finds that sex for the purpose of pregnancy becomes a highly rationalized project in which participants attempt to perfect their timing and promote the best chance for conception. In these married heterosexual couples, women manage the project of sex for the purpose of pregnancy and dictate to their husbands when they need to have sex. Using the third shift as a theoretical framework, this article demonstrates how sex for pregnancy becomes a gendered chore involving emotion work, cognitive labor, and body work. This research contributes to our understanding of household labor, sexual intimacy, and reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]