Exploitation And Gendered Labor : An Ever Present Issue

In the country of Mexico there has been a phenomenon called violencia femicida (Olivera, 2006). Violencia femicida are homicides that occur against women at an increasing rate (Olivera, 2006). According to Olivera neoliberal policies are to blame for these murders (2006). Neoliberal policies in the country of Mexico have resulted in extreme poverty and unemployment due to the “fostered corruption and inefficiency in governments that maintain oligarchic, authoritarian, and patriarchal social structures disguised as democracies” (Olivera, 2006). As a result, Mexican women have searched for jobs in places called maquiladoras. Maquiladoras are factories known for their cheap labor and their exploitative conditions (Olivera, 2006). At maquiladoras many human rights are violated, especially the right under article twenty-three of the universal declaration of human rights. Article

Many different variables play a part in finding a solution to help end child labor. Unfortunately, this form of labor plays a large role in Mexico’s economy. Although the country has anti-child labor laws, the children of Mexico are forced to work for a variety of reasons. Most families force the children to work due to their struggle with poverty and lack of income. Although some organizations (like the North American Free Trade Agreement) look at solutions to help boost Mexico’s economy, large international corporations enter the country’s struggling economy capitalizing on it’s low cost manufacturing and wages, thus forcing children to work. Solutions must be looked at in order to stop kids from working their childhood away instead of getting an education to ultimately help Mexico’s economy.

Employing Mexicans for such minimal wages implies a peculiar kind of a 20th century imperialism: GM is able to extract enormous profits and to become the world’s largest corporation by super-exploiting labor in a country less well developed and economically influenced by the USA.

To begin with, Sacrificing Families by Leisy J. Abrego, draws on the narratives of many Salvadorian families to tell the stories on how illegality and gender shape their lives. In Chapter five, Abrego accurately captures the gender roles of immigrant parents in transnational families. Abrego makes it clear that there are inequalities between genders, men have always been privileged individuals, and regardless of the work, they make more money when compared to women. Through her interviews Abrego provides evidence for the structural reality of gender-stratified opportunities and the gender roles that benefit men and constrain women. According to Abrego, “For women, the three most common occupational sectors were domestic, garment and hotel house-keeping work (102). With this we can see that how the occupations of women are tied to their gender roles. Women are supposed to stay at home, clean the house, and nurture.

Women are believed to have greater manual dexterity than men and they are therefore preferred by companies who want to maximize their production. Women who are hired for their supposed superiority to men when it comes to manual dexterity, a trade essential to a maquiladora worker, are ironically paid much less despite their valued trait. It is clear that the degree to which the women are devalued is far greater than the degree to which their ability and production is valued. Women's bodies are being exploited in factories where they are being paid ridiculously low wages based on a cultural belief that men superior to women, that women belong in the household and that men belong in the workplace. They are then paid significantly less partly to reinforce this ideal—to keep men as the leaders of the household--and partly in order to reinforce the stereotypes about the submissive and inferior nature of women.

One of the beginning issues of women being oppressed starts with the wage gap between working women and men. This wage gap is often one of the most direct roots to the overwhelming amount of women living in poverty. Despite many women working, or looking for work in the U.S, they have been continually paid less than their male counterparts. For years, women, especially those who are working class’ equal rights have been pushed aside and causes an endless cycle of oppression for many women. The inequalities working-class women face such as the wage gap causes economical issues such as poverty, that affects the economy as a whole. In efforts to close the wage gap, the United States needs to raise the federal minimum wage, ensure family and medical leave, and encourage everyone to speak out about gender equality.

We have read and watched a lot of information about the women and the way they are treated in their working area, specifically when we talked about the maquiladoras on the boarder. This week we are presented with another source of information about the maquiladoras and how maquiladora employees live their daily lives. The film, “Maquilapolis” by Vicky Funari and Sergio de la Torre uses a social art practice to contribute to the privileging of subalterns voices. In the film, the filmmakers start by telling the stories of a few women who worked for the maquilas and tell their experience as employees of those big corporations such as Sony, Panasonic, Sanyo, among many others. Some of these women explain how they started working since those maquiladoras opened in the 1960’s and they explain how it was a big deal to work

Maquiladoras are assembly plants clustered mostly in northern Mexico, along the U.S. border. The factories employ 17 percent of the Mexican work force, this makes maquiladoras Mexico’s second largest source of jobs but some people would say that the negatives weight over the positives. Some negatives about this situation are that how the Mexican government does not have full control of the factories, how the employees have to work in harsh conditions and, the employees get paid a low wage. Maquiladoras have both a positive and negative effect on the Mexican economy because of the poor work conditions, however the large numbers of the population they employ cannot be ignored.

In 1960 when maquiladoras emerged in border cities, changing people’s perspective for better opportunities and a better future. The majority of the people working in the maquiladoras were women, the reason for that was because they thought that woman had smaller hands and could assemble the parts faster and more efficiently than men. Some of the women in the interview’s talked about having to work double shifts and even night shifts, in order to be able to survive being single parents. Leaving their children home alone without insufficient care and not growing up with the attention and demand they require. Some of the children from maquiladora employees grow up in the streets and involved in gangs from misguidance and not having the luxury of having their parents come home every night to help them with homework or to put them to sleep, due to the fact of their parent having to work at a low pay job with no incentives and no opportunities to

On this week’s topic of global violence against women, Elvia R. Arriola authored the peer-reviewed article, “Accountability for Murder in the Mquiladoras: Linking Corporate Indifference to Gender Violence at the U.S. Mexico Border” (2007). Arriola depicts the treatment of girls and women on the Mexican border who are employed in the maquiladora are due to corporations that move over to the Mexican boarders because of the salary which is higher in this area due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States, and Canada (1993). In fact, the frequency of domestic violence and femicide occurs more frequently regardless of policies and laws. Additionally, the maquiladora murders are a severe indication of Mexico’s

Regarding females in the workplace, the common opinion across the American continent used to be that by working outside the home, women were abandoning their primary job in life—that of a mother and wife, taking care of the house and the family. In modern times, Latinas take on multiple roles; not only are they still expected to look put together and run the family and the household—for most Latinas in the US, without any outside help—, but many are also breadwinners, some by choice and others by default. The decision made by many Latinas to work has already changed society due to growing feelings of self-empowerment. This newly discovered power is reflected in the increased use of contraceptives by Latin American women. Despite the Roman Catholic teachings, Latinas have taken matters into their own hands by using birth control to decrease the size of their families and lessen their burden, thus allowing them to fulfill their multidimensional desires and duties.

As a major contributor to the global economy, Mexico’s sweatshops have contributed to the United States’ wealth and economic growth. It is the unfortunate truth that many individual workers have suffered as a result of this prosperity. The sweatshops, known as maquiladoras, are in debate because of the ethical and lawful reasoning behind their existence and conditions. How can we, as a First-world nation, allow such industries to exist where people are denied basic and fundamental human rights? What, if any, laws and regulations are put into place for the maquiladoras? Are these laws and regulations hindering, harmful, or helpful? Are they enforced emphatically? If not, how does this affect development? After

Feminization of work is an idea which lives up to expectations towards more noteworthy vocation of women and the point is to illuminate the issues concerning sex disparities in the work power. It points towards explaining the issues of sexual contrasts and killing imbalance in administrations.

“In the Maquiladoras the workers are 70% women, they are subject to poor working conditions and sexual harassment. Illegal work practices also occur such as firing pregnant women and denying maternity leave. Women are paid less than men and are let go around the age of 30 with very few skills.” (Pine 2008, p.142)

Social status and structures have definitely shaped the construction and experience of gender inequality. Men and women are constantly analyzed, compared, and grouped together in society. The result of this yields discrepancies in how sexes are viewed by society. Throughout my examination and explanation of gender inequality, I concluded both men and women are victims to gender inequality.