FEMALE-ATTRIBUTED INFERTILITY AS GENDERED OPPRESSION: PSYCHOSOCIAL AND RELATIONAL CONSEQUENCES

Infertility, particularly when attributed to women, carries profound psychosocial consequences in patriarchal and traditionally structured societies. This study examines the impact of female-attributed infertility on marital dissatisfaction (MD), psychological distress (PD), and family aggression (FA) in rural Pakistan, where motherhood is constructed as central to a woman’s identity and social value. Guided by the Stress Process Model, Attribution Theory, Gender Role Theory, the Feminist Theory of Patriarchy, and the Social Construction of Motherhood, data were collected from 721 married women living in extended households using validated psychometric instruments. Structural Equation Modeling through Analysis of Moment Structures was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. Results indicated that female-attributed infertility significantly predicted PD, MD, and FA. Moreover, FA significantly mediated the relationship between infertility attribution and both marital and psychological outcomes. These findings demonstrate that infertility attribution functions not merely as a medical or personal issue but as a gendered social process shaped by patriarchal structures and cultural ideals of womanhood. The study contributes empirical evidence on the psychosocial costs of infertility stigma and its entanglement with relational dynamics in rural Pakistani families.