Women and Work in Mexico's Maquiladoras

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Rowman & Littlefield, 1998 - Business & Economics - 176 pages
The emergence of global assembly plants is closely linked to the creation of a global female industrial labor force. Women and Work in Mexico's Maquiladoras examines this larger process in Mexico, where--despite a century of industrialization and a tradition of well-paid, highly organized, male workers--the maquiladora factories have turned to predominantly female labor. Exploring this dramatic shift, this book convincingly demonstrates how gender restructuring in workplaces and households has become a crucial element in the reorientation of Mexican development. The author compares Mexico's new industrial system with its historical antecedent and documents federal policy changes that have resulted in distinct patterns of gender, unionization, household form, and social welfare. Rich in ethnographic detail, the book uses the voices of workers themselves to provide an intimate look at how daily lives have been transformed--in ways that could not have been foreseen--by the national and international processes shaping the country's industrial transition.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Early Industrialization in Mexico
23
Internationalization and Privatization Industrialization after 1976
43
The Old Model A Case Study of StateLed Industrialization
59
The New Model A Case Study of the Maquiladora Industry
71
SingleSex Worker Dormitories
101
Comparative Household Formation Analysis of Change
111
Conclusion
133
Appendix
141
Bibliography
149
Index
169
About the Author
Copyright

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About the author (1998)

Altha J. Cravey is assistant professor of geography at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.