Crossing the Factory Frontier: Gender, Place and Power in the Mexican Maquiladora (original) (raw)

The masculinization of the Mexican maquiladoras

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2002

Men's involvement in the maquiladora labor force has increased more than 17 times between 1975 when men constituted 21.7 percent of the non-technician, non-management workers, and 1995 when men constituted 40.9 percent of the maquila workers. Is this occurring because the dearth of "maquila grade" female labor is fueling a more heterogeneous maquiladora labor force? Or is it that the proliferation of maquiladoras involves more plants with jobs traditionally typed as "masculine"? Or, is it possible that "docile, nimble-fingered" males have made their appearance on the labor market? This paper will attempt to answer these questions.

The politics of relocation: gender, nationality, and value in a Mexican maquiladora

Environment and Planning A, 1999

In this paper, I combine a Marxist critique of the labor theory of value with poststructuralist feminist theories of subjectivity to illustrate how the decision to transfer a manufacturing operation out of Mexico revolves around the culturally constructed meanings of identity internal to the firm. I attempt to illustrate how the managers of a maquiladora establish patterns for designating national and sex differences among their employees to support an argument that the production of valuable commodities is a social process interwoven with the social construction of differential values in people. And I endeavor to show how these complicated processes for identifying value in things, and in the people who make them, have an impact upon the internal structure of the firm. The paper is based upon several months of ethnographic research conducted in a multinational maquiladora located in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.

Empowering Disenfranchised Female Factory Workers in Mexico's Export Processing Zones.

2008

This work contributes to the literature on social movements in Latin America during the 1980s. Although written back in June 2008, many issues covered are and will continue to be pertinent in manufacturing plants around the globe in the coming years. For readers interested in gender equality, labor rights, and export processing zones in general; I hope you all will find this short thesis an enjoyable read and become inspired to make the most out of seemingly dull, mind-numbing, repetitive, and mundane low-paying jobs after reading it!

We Are in This Dance Together: Gender, Power, and Globalization at a Mexican Garment Firm

2012

Changes in the global economy have real and contradictory outcomes for the everyday lives of women workers. In 2001, Nancy Plankey-Videla had a rare opportunity to witness these effects firsthand. Having secured access to one of Latin America's top producers of high-end men's suits in Mexico for participant-observer research, she laboured as a machine operator for nine months on a shop floor made up, mostly, of women. The firm had recently transformed itself from traditional assembly techniques, to lean, cutting-edge, Japanese-style production methods. Lured initially into the firm by way of increased wages and benefits, workers had helped shoulder the company's increasing debts. When the company's plan for successful expansion went awry and it reneged on promises it had made to the workforce, women workers responded by walking out on strike. Building upon in-depth interviews with over sixty workers, managers, and policy makers, Plankey-videla documents and analyses ...