Reproductive Realities: Are Families Achieving Their Desired Size?

2026 Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Symposium on Fertility

Join us for the first of our MCH Symposium series on fertility, featuring leaders in economics, demography, epidemiology, and sociology. We’ll explore whether people can have the
children they want when they want them, what forces shape gaps between desired and actual fertility, and how MCH can advance research, policy, and practice.

Our guiding questions include:

  • Do men and women have the number of children they want and when they want them?
  • What economic, social, health‑related, and structural factors shape the gap between desired and actual fertility?
  • What is the role of Maternal and Child Health in advancing research and practice?

This event is co-sponsored with The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.

Speakers

  • Dr. Claudia Goldin, 2023 Nobel laureate; Samuel W. Morris University Professor
    Harvard University
  • Dr. Alison Gemmill, Associate Professor of Epidemiology
    UCLA School of Public Health
  • Dr. Karen Guzzo, Director, Carolina Population Center
    UNC Chapel Hill
  • Dr. Jennifer Glass, Centennial Commission Professor of Liberal Arts in the Department of Sociology
    University of Texas at Austin

Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2026

This event is open to the wider community, both in-person and virtually.

When:  Wed, Nov 18, 2026 from 01:00 PM to 05:30 PM (ET)