When the timing of childbearing condemns women, are reproductive technologies a new way towards gender equality?

There are evident gender inequalities regarding procreation and parental projects: reproductive age differs between women and men both biologically and socially. At the same time, social and demographic changes lead women to postpone their maternity or to choose between their career and maternity. Today, women can conceive later with assisted reproductive technologies (ART), oocyte donation in particular. But are these technologies a solution to reduce gender inequality regarding parenting and procreation? Are they used in this way? Through an empirical study on cross-border fertility care involving French residents, which allowed to recruit French women over 40 (whose ART access is generally refused in France), we will present the characteristics, histories and motivations of these women in order to analyze if “late” maternity is for them the result of a personal and free choice. We will show that ART, especially oocyte donation, is not experienced as a liberating and chosen event. Nevertheless, the international procreative market is proposing a new medical technique (oocyte vitrification) which could be a real springboard towards gender equality regarding calendar of procreation.