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An increasing number of Norwegian women are paying large amounts of money to freeze their unfertilized eggs. What can this tell us about women’s lives in a Nordic welfare state in late modernity? Is egg banking “the contraceptive pill in reverse”, a tool for feminist liberation?
These are questions that Førde will address when she writes about egg freezing in Norway. The book, which will take an essayistic form, will be aimed at a broad audience. Now, she has received 100 000 NOK from Fritt Ord and 144 000 NOK from NFFO to complete the project.
Førde looks at elective egg freezing, that is to say when women freeze eggs in the hope of prolonging their fertility, rather than for medical reasons. This type of reproductive technology has been on the rise in the western world for the past decade. The procedure has been available in Norway since 2020, after a liberalization of the Biotechnology Act.
–This subject seems to generate curiosity and engagement, perhaps because it touches on some central conflicts and paradoxes of our time. These relate to gender and equality, but also the individual’s right to decide over themselves, and the extent to which we are responsible for how our lives unfold, Førde explains.
The book will be based on Førde’s ongoing research project, in which she has interviewed 22 women born in the 1980s and 1990s about the circumstances, wishes, and intentions that make egg freezing an attractive and meaningful option for them.
–I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to share this research with a wider audience, and in a slightly different format than regular academic publishing.