Iddo Tavory Elizabeth Ziff New School University
In the United States, the practice of gestational surrogacy has grown exponentially. Military wives are disproportionately represented in the rising numbers of surrogate women. This dissertation will investigate the experiences of U.S. military wives who have been, or are currently gestational surrogates and will examine how these women came to be surrogates, what their experiences were and how being a "military wife" informs this choice. Analysis of this group will result in an enriched and focused account of the motivations for women to become surrogates, how the surrogate identity is constructed and performed, and the lasting effects of the practice on these women and their families. In addition, potential intersections of class, race, military life, family and national discourse will also be explored in this project. Data will be collected through individual, semi-structured interviews with military wives who have been through the surrogate experience and will be analyzed for trends specific to the sample. Findings will also be compared to other studies on surrogates to identify what similarities military wives exhibit and how, if any way, the surrogate experience is specifically structured by their role as a military spouse. Preliminary research indicates the existence of a strong elective affinity between military culture and surrogacy based on a shared imperative to serve the needs of others, which may lead to distinct differences between this group of surrogates and others. This project is intended to contribute to the existing body of work on surrogacy by producing a clearer portrait of the surrogate and demystifying an under-developed and, at times, distorted cultural view of these women.
Broader Impacts There has been a significant cultural shift with regard to reproduction due to the ever-increasing options available to couples and individuals. As surrogacy has become commercialized there has been a significant increase in the numbers of babies born via this practice and it is imperative that we as researchers and a society better understand the experience of physically producing someone else?s child. This research will not only impact specific academic circles in sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and others, but will also be informative for participants in the surrogate market, potential surrogates and intended parents who are seeking information on this role, the children who are born to surrogates and the public in general. Aside from etching a portrait of the surrogate, this work will give voice specifically to military spouses and will methodologically investigate my proposed connection between military wives and surrogacy. This work will address the altogether broader tangent of how social conceptions of kinship, motherhood and the body are affected by surrogacy.
During the grant period subjects were recruited and interviewed and preliminary data analysis commenced. The first nine months of the grant period was focused on finding and recruiting subjects and traveling to conduct interviews. Subjects were recruited via online support forums for surrogates and military spouses as well as through private surrogacy groups on Facebook. Subjects were asked to participate in structured in-person interviews where they were prompted to speak about their experiences as a military spouse and their experiences as a surrogate. During the grant period thirty one interviews were conducted and all were recorded for accuracy. Two-thirds of the interviews were conducted in person and the CO-PI traveled to eleven states in the U.S. to meet with subjects. The remainder of the interviews were conducted via phone call, either at the request of the subject or for convenience for both parties. Focus switched to transcription and data analysis near the end of the grant period. Tentative results have begun to illuminate the relationship between the role of the military spouse and the surrogate, however, no definitive claims can be made until all data has been transcribed and analyzed. While there appears to be no significant difference in the motivations to be a surrogate between this sample and other groups of surrogates there are certain characteristics and experiences of being a military spouse that lend themselves favorably to being a surrogate. There is rich data addressing the relationship between the military wife role and the surrogate role and how both inform each other and influence the way the women understand, and make sense of, their differing responsibilities. Preliminary analysis has also illuminated how this experience impacts the women who do it, both during the surrogate experience and afterwards. Overall, the women in the sample indicate that surrogacy was an extremely positive and rewarding experience for them which has significantly impacted their lives and their already established roles and mother and woman.
