On Indian Surrogates: Portfolio of Bourdieu’s Capital and the Emotional Capital
Before discussing the portfolio of capital available to surrogates , it is pivotal to reiterate the imbalanced impacts the external structure has on these women, and to acknowledge the formation of capital of all forms is self-reflexive. Coined with the term “stratified reproduction” (Colen, 1984; Ginsburg and Rapp, 1995), the concept depicts how the imbalanced capabilities gained through gendered power relations often disempower women and empower their male counterparts in childbearing, nurturing, and education. Alongside social reproductive tasks, physical contracted pregnancy is also completed, experienced, and valued differentially due to inequalities embedded in socioeconomic hierarchies and historical and cultural contexts (Markens, 2007).
Although external structure can be market-based environment that emphasizes competition and individualism (Hann & Hart, 2011), it can also serve as socio-cultural framework that creates market sufferation for individuals (Zaloom, 2006) and specifically deepens Marx’s alienation on reproductive labour (Oliver, 1989). Thus, the instrumentality against external structure carried by surrogates (Goslinga-Roy, 2000) constrains the convertibility of economic, social, and cultural capital.