Project summary:
This PhD project led by Madeline Kuiper explores Canadian Armed Forces Servicewomen’s experiences with assisted reproductive care. Madeline’s project uses Institutional Ethnography to understand how ruling relations (i.e. policy, chain of command) contribute to fertility decisions.
This project seeks participants who have experience with all levels of fertility services, who are currently employed in full-time service within the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and identify as cisgender women.
The CAF continues to prioritise recruitment and retention of women (Davis, 2009; Gouliquer, 2011; McCristall & Baggaley, 2024; Von Hlatky & Imre-Millei, 2022). Women may delay family planning, experience challenges in accessing care, or leave the military altogether due to difficulties balancing reproductive goals with service demands (Boedeker et al., 2025; Lee et al., 2025; Rowan-Legg, 2017; Taber, 2011). Understanding how the military can better support women when building families without compromising their career is essential to individual wellbeing and institutional sustainability.
