Bridging Reproductive and Productive Work

The Case of Surrogates in California

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4564465
AutoresAlba Ayala (0000-0001-8020-9020, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, autor correspondente), Consuelo Álvarez Plaza (0000-0001-9520-357X, Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Ana María Rivas (0000-0003-1675-6163, Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Ano2024
Volume43
Fascículo8
Páginas748-769
Data de publicação2024-11-16
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoMedical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0145-9740 • E-ISSN: 1545-5882
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01459740.2024.2364244
PMID38865595
OpenAlexW4399560959
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas57

In this article, we explore the perspectives of commercial gestational surrogates in California, USA. Women who gestate for others reveal themselves as important agents in the process of giving meaning and cultural legitimacy to their practice, thus demonstrating their capacity to act in their own interest and resignify their work in their own terms. To them, surrogacy is more than wage labor. They assert the importance of their experience as a source of professional skills, downplaying its monetary value and placing it within favorable moral frameworks, thus finding cultural legitimacy. In doing so, they bridge the divide between traditional female reproductive work (unpaid emotional, relational, and care work) and productive work (paid professional work in the public sphere). They achieve this without subverting the underlying values of western kinship. The results shed light on employability and entrepreneurship of surrogates in the fertility industry of California

Economic growth · Economics · Fertility · Kinship · Legitimacy · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Work (physics · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender Studies · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Reproductive Health and Technologies