Fifty Years of ‘Becoming a Mother’: The Social History of a Research Project Over Half a Century

Whilst theories of social change are mainstays of the sociological discipline, work on how to actually study the same research question over time is less developed. In this article we discuss some of the methodological, practical and ethical challenges of carrying out a research project over a period of 50 years. The landmark project – 50 Years of Becoming a Mother – examines continuities and changes in women’s transition to first-time motherhood. This involves secondary data analysis (of original study materials); longitudinal ‘follow-up’ research with the original sample of women (as well as interviews with some of their daughters and granddaughters); and ‘repeat’ studies with new cohorts of mothers at separate intervals. But how does collecting data on reproductive and parenting experiences in the mid-2020s compare with the same project 50 years ago? In this article we focus on how the research process itself has altered over this period, and on the intersections between research practices, on the one hand, and changes in the social context, on the other. In offering a social history of a research project, the article contributes to the neglected field of the sociology of social research as well as to the corpus of studies on motherhood and parenting.