Abstract
This research project aims to bring reproductive justice issues to a more in-depth discussion within the field of social work, and to find out what social work students’ understandings and perspectives are on these important issues. There are two components to this thesis research. The first component is an extensive qualitative analysis of 90 academic, published, peer reviewed articles on the topic of reproductive justice. The 20 major findings from this extensive review were then organized and formulated to be the base for the construction of the data collection tool. This data collection tool was then utilized for the quantitative assessment of 123 university students’ perspectives on normative expectations regarding childbearing and reproduction. Findings indicated that gender was not a predictor of one’s awareness. Those across the gender spectrum had similar levels of awareness of these expectations, demonstrating that personal experiences are not necessarily a prerequisite for awareness. Other identity factors, however, like age, socioeconomic status, v and parenting status, did have some impact. Therefore, positionality and intersectionality do appear to play a role.