Essay Sample on Stratified Reproduction and Motherhood

Introduction

Reproduction and motherhood are among the most revered societal values. They are important for the preservation of lineage, recreation, caring and nurturing of offspring. However, social and economic pressured have made motherhood to be problematic in the contemporary society as reflected by the imbalance in the ability of mothers from diverse classes, ethnic and racial background to reproduce, care and nurture their children, a concept described by Parrenas (2000) to be stratified reproduction. The concepts of transnational motherhood and commercial surrogacy are continuing to gain acceptance and popularity in contemporary society reflecting a decline in the preference of naturally and religiously accepted motherhood. The essay will discuss the concept of stratified reproduction and provide a detailed account of the ways in which motherhood is differently experienced, rewarded and valued globally.

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In Parrenas' (2000) article, stratified reproduction has been depicted to be a form of imbalance in the capacity of individuals of different classes, nationalities, ethnicities, and races to reproduce and foster children. Evidently, reproduction in the article has been described to be traverse just the act of conception and to include the subsequent prenatal processes and nurturing the children. In stratified reproduction, the process of conceiving and nurturing children is varied in a way that the other individuals in the society are preferred to reproduced compared to others. While explaining the concept of gestational surrogacy and reproductive tourism, the fact that couples and women in Europe and United States are hiring Indian women to gestate and deliver women on their behalf, Judith Warner in her article "Outsourced Wombs" demonstrates an example of stratified reproduction (Twine, 2015). The author quotes Shellee Cohen's definition of stratified reproduction as a situation where the social and physical reproductive tasks of conceiving, nurturing, raising and incorporating children as active members of the society are accomplished disproportionately depending on the hierarchies of gender, ethnicity, race and class in the global economy.

Stratified reproduction has led to a situation where motherhood is experienced, rewarded and valued differently globally. Generally, motherhood is both racialized and gendered. Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila (2003) take an example is in the United States where the concept of industrial revolution created a "cult of domesticity" in which husbands for a long time were sole breadwinners until the country experienced an upsurge in the number of working women. Due to the racial and ethnic differences in the US, the view of motherhood is different. For instance, women of color who are in the labor force have the capacity of raising their children singlehandedly because of their capacity to access socioeconomic security to nurture their children at the early ages. Culture and religion play key roles in the way motherhood are experienced, rewarded and valued. For instance, Latin culture has the cultural perception which idealized the concept of solo mothering. It is similar to many other cultures in countries such as such as Israel, US, and Europe support solo motherhood especially for women who are working. In Twine's (2015) article "Religious Law and Regulatory Regimes: Egypt and Israel", countries like Egypt where many people are Muslims, motherhood is valued under the condition that it does not originate from third-party procreative substances according to Islamic laws. Therefore, motherhood in regions such as Egypt and households that practice and follows Islamic doctrines is only appreciated when it arises from legal and religious marriage.

It is evident in Twine's (2015) "Industrial Womb" article that the way motherhood is valued and appreciated is largely dependent on the economic and social status of the mothers. Twine (2015) takes an example of Black Caribbean women working as domestic servants in New York in which motherhood is valued only when it is in the form of gestational surrogacy. Underemployed and poor women rent their womb in exchange for money and it is for that reason Twine (2015) considers gestational surrogacy to be one of the leading triggers of transnational motherhood. The degree to which elite American women indulge themselves in gestational surrogacy and transnational motherhood reveals that motherhood is generally embraced as a vital element for continuity of generation and recreation. However, according to Twine's (2015) "Industrial Womb" article, elite women in America and Europe who feel empowered with legal and social entitlement to avoid domestic lives and pursue careers do not value motherhood. Some of the career-oriented women engage in commercial surrogacy because of the middle-class ideology of mother-child isolation. This is a different case among the women of color who prefer to mother their children at close proximity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that motherhood and reproduction are differently valued and experienced across the globe. This difference is caused by stratified reproduction caused by the religious, social and economic inequality that influence people's abilities to reproduce and care for their children. Commercial surrogacy and transnational motherhood show both sides of the concept of motherhood as it reveals the extent to which individuals are willing to do just to mother their kids and also the degree to which people don't want to mother children at close proximity. Therefore, social, religious, political and economic forces structure the motherhood and the global social reproductive labor.

References

Hondagneu-Sotelo, P., & Avila, E. (2003). Chapter 15: "I'm Here, but I'm There": The Meanings of Latina Transnational Motherhood. In Gender and U.S. Immigration: Contemporary Trends. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Parrenas, R. (2000). Chapter 3: The International Division of Reproductive Labor. In Migrant Wisconsin Filipina Domestic Workers and the International Division of Reproductive Labor (pp. 36-48). Madison: University of.

Twine, F. (2015). Industrial Womb. In Race, Class and Gestational Surrogacy in a Global Marke (pp. 1-36). London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Twine, F. W. (2015). Religious Law and Regulatory Regimes: Egypt and Israel. In Outsourcing the Womb: Race, Class and Gestational Surrogacy in a Global Mark (pp. 37-38). London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.