The Struggle of Women in Maquiladoras

2244 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of border protection

The Struggle of Women in Maquiladoras

Over the years, women have been key participants in the work force, labor unions, and strikes. Recently, women have taken part in organizing the labor in the maquiladoras in Mexico. The duty-free assembly plants located on the U.S./Mexican border, known as maquiladoras, have threatened and abused their workers and repeatedly ignored the labor laws. Women have begun to take a stand and fight for their rights as well as for their fellow workers.

First, it is best to explore the origin and function of the maquiladora in the economy. Mexico's Border Industrialization Program of 1966 first established the maquiladoras. The plants must operate within the framework of Mexican laws, and the Mexican government is free to place restrictions on them. For a U.S. company to be incorporated into Mexico, it must submit detailed information about its products, manufacturing process, expenses, jobs created, and a list of all the necessary equipment. Then the company will receive approval to operate under a maquiladora program and will be issued a permit. Once the maquiladora is operating, the company will transport goods for repair or assembly to Mexico duty-free. Once assembled, the products are exported back to the U.S. with a tax added to the value (Martinez). Some of the companies with maquiladora status include Hyindai, Sony, General Electric, Ford, Zenith, Sara Lee and Wal-Mart (Kourous).

There are many advantages of the maquiladoras, which creates incentive for more companies to join. For the U.S., the foremost advantage is a plethora of low wage employees with high quality skills. Many companies have reported a saving of up to $30,000 per direct labor employee per ye...

... middle of paper ...

...

"A Fair Deal". American Friends Service Committee. Nov.1998.

http://www.afsc.org/border/maquila.htm (19 Mar. 1999).

Kourous, George. "Health and Safety in the Maquiladoras". Borderlines 47, volume 6,

#6, Aug 1998.

http://www.zianet.com/irc1/borderline/1998/bl47ohs.html#table1

(20 Mar. 1999).

Malkin, Elisabeth. "Making Life Bearable in the Maquiladoras". Business Week,

09/21/98, p18D.

"Manufacturing in Nearby Mexico". Collectron of Arizona, Inc. 1997.

http://collectron.com/ (20 Mar. 1999).

Martinez, Hector. "Maquiladoras: Should U.S. Companies Run for the Border?"

The Latin American Alliance. 1997. http://www.latinsynergy.org/maquiladoras.html

(26 Feb 99).

"Sex Discrimination in Mexico's Maquiladora Sector". Human Rights Watch

Publication. 1996. http://www.hrw.org/hrw/summaries/s.mexico968.html (3 Mar 1999).

Show More
Related

  • Life On The Global Assembly Line By Barbara Ehrenreich And Annette Fuentes

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagine being employee number 101 out of 1001. Now imagine working on an assembly line in a hot room filled with 1000 other women frantically assembling products for first world countries to use for ten seconds before discarding for a newer version. This job pays enough for you to get by but living in a third world country with low pay isn’t easy. What many people don’t understand is that the cost of production in a third world country is more inexpensive than it is in America. Hiring women to work in horrid conditions decreases employee loss because they are not rambunctious like men. “Life on the Global Assembly Line” by Barbara Ehrenreich and Annette Fuentes clearly illustrates the hardships women go through for U.S. corporation production. Corporate powers have resorted to building production plants in third world countries to save money. U.S. corporate powers take advantage of third world

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In The Underdogs By Mariano Azuela

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel, The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela is a great perception of the Mexican Revolution. The stories of exploits and wartime experiences during the Mexican Revolution was fundamentally driven by the men. The war was between the people and the government. Throughout the novel, these men had to isolate themselves from their families and battle for a cause they greatly believed in. Even with not enough resources, the people were able to fight aggressively in order to overthrow the government. Regardless of the men who were at war, there were two females who played a significant role in the Mexican Revolution, Camila and War Paint. While the representation Mariano Azuela captures these ladies and their role in society are accurate, he neglects

    Read More

  • Women In Colonial Latin America Essay

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    “What kind of society made it possible for women to act independently, even when this caused conflict with the men around them” (Gauderman 132)? The Spanish system was socially, administratively, and politically decentralized, and the family was also part of the decentralization. One of the objectives of this decentralized system was to prevent any individual or group from consolidating a position of absolute control (126). Equality was not the goal of the legislation and the state, but to uphold social and legal norms (1). Gauderman gathered her information from legislation, civil and criminal litigation, city-council, and notarial records to support her theory that women had a significant role in colonial Latin America (5).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Discrimination In The Maquiladoras

    1634 Words  | 4 Pages

    These women are feminists because they are fighting for equality, mainly for women in the workforce who are perceived as being treated unfairly by their employers in a capitalist franchise where one possess all of the power. Through the use of free speech they converse between each other, spreading the truth about maquiladoras and the conditions in which they work in. When Duran first heard about the demand for immigrant workers, particularly women she became overjoyed since she was a single mother attempting to raise three children. As a maquiladora she was promised better wages than the rest of Mexico, ill-informed of the harm her body would inevitably undergo. Duran obtained her first job at Sanyo, which was relatively close to her home, she stated that though the environment was magnificent, the way in which she was treated was not so delightful, enduring daily harassment from her employer along with being exposed to dangerous chemicals, she began to suffer from nose bleeds as well as developed kidney problems since she was restricted from using the restroom and denied water. Nearly 6.5 years later, Sanyo announced its relocation to Indonesia since the fly back (T.V. component) where it could be fabricated for

    Read More

  • The Work of Langston Hughes

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    Langston Hughes is considered by many readers to be the most significant black poet of the twentieth century. He is described as ³...the beloved author of poems steeped in the richness of African American culture, poems that exude Hughes¹s affection for black Americans across all divisions of region, class, and gender.² (Rampersad 3) His writing was both depressing and uplifting at times. His poetry, spanning five decades from 1926 to 1967, reflected the changing black experience in America, from the Harlem Renaissance to the turbulent sixties. At the beginning of his career, he was surrounded by the Harlem Renaissance. New York City in the 1920¹s was a place of immense growth and richness in African-American culture and art. For Hughes, this was the perfect opportunity to establish his poems. His early work reflects the happy times of the era. However, as time progressed he became increasingly bitter and upset over race relations. Except for a few examples, all his poems from this later period spoke about social injustice in America. The somber tone of his writing often reflected his mood. Race relations was the shadow of his career, following him from his first poem to his last. The tone and subject matter of Hughes¹s poetry can be linked to certain points in history, and his life. The youth of Hughes is brought out by his poem ³Harlem Night Club², a piece which describes living in the moment. Often children do not consider the consequences of their actions; they act on instinct and desire. Hughes might have been 27 when he wrote this poem, but the feisty, upbeat tempo of a school boy is present in his style. ³Harlem Night Club² is unique in that it describes the integration of blacks and whites in an optimistic tone. The vigor and spirit of his youth is reflected in the energy of the writing, ³Jazz-band, jazz-band,­ / Play, plAY, PLAY! / Tomorrow....who knows? / Dance today!² The repetition of the words, and the increasing emphasis on the word ³play² bring out the excitement to the reader. More evidence of Hughes¹s youth comes from the very focus of the poem: the interracial couples. The entire poem can be summed up as ³...a single-glance tableau of interracial flirtation against a background of heady jazz.² (Emanuel 120) This festive relationship between the two sexes can rarely be seen in any of Hughes¹s later poems. At th...

    Read More

  • Mexican Women And Mexican American Women

    1873 Words  | 4 Pages

    During The Great Depression and World War II, large numbers of Mexican women and men joined the workforce, unions, and other organizations (Page 212). The workplace allowed Mexican women to socialize with one another and they finally for the first time experience what it is like to be independent without relying on any man. “By 1930, some 25 percent of Mexican (and Mexican American) women were in some kind of industrial employment” (Acuna 215). However, Mexican Americans were paid less than a white American, especially Mexican women. In order to for Mexican and Mexican Americans to fight for their rights to be paid and be treated like a white American, Mexican women formed labor unions that would you united them and protest against the owners

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Langston Hughes And Countee Cullen

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    The intersection of themes in the poetry of Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes is, perhaps, most evident in their poems ‘Lines to My Father,’ and ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ respectively. A close analysis of the literal meaning and literary styles employed by both poets show that they drew their inspiration from common images, experiences, and the troubled history of the African-Americans. In the ‘Negro Speaks of Rivers,’ the persona claims that his soul has grown as deep as the rivers. In one way, the image of the river captures the essence of ancestry and the continuity of heritage. Throughout the poem, the poet uses various other images such as blood, veins, and sunset to embolden the push for cultural

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Whiteness By Langston Hughes

    1291 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hughes primary audience is Black American artists, who he addresses with sincerity and disappointment in their failure to see their own unique and beautiful qualities. He is “ashamed” of the poet who wants “to run away spiritually from his race.” He also addresses his secondary audience, Black people who are not artistically inclined, with disappointment. He shows his distaste for the attitude that

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Latin American Societies

    704 Words  | 2 Pages

    The idea that a woman’s job is to be a wife and mother is old-fashioned, but not completely out of style. Though these roles require a great deal of talent, resilience, patience, love, and strength, to name a few, they are often underestimated or depicted as simple. Especially in modern times, many women in the United States who stay home to raise a family are viewed as anti-feminists, whereas women in Latin America are not criticized for similar actions. In recent decades, more Latin American women have started to break the mold, daring to be both sexy, and successful in the workforce, while remaining pillars of domestic life.

    Read More

  • I Too Langston Hughes Essay

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    Volume D consisted of poetry from various authors, one of whom was famous jazz poet Langston Hughes. Hughes was an African-American man who was born in Joplin, Missouri. He was very innovative with his style of poetry, and was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry dealt heavily with the Black experience in America, and he was famously known for poems such as “I, too”, “Visitors to the Black Belt”, and “Words Like Freedom.” These poems relate mostly to the theme of diverse voices and each one is shows insight to Hughes’s personal connection to his work.

    Read More

  • A Critical Theory Of Self-Determination Theory

    1523 Words  | 4 Pages

    Basic Needs Theory describes how three important psychological needs share an important relationship with intrinsic motivation, higher quality engagement, overall psychological well-being, and general functioning capacities. The three psychological needs are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. After reading about these three basic needs, it was apparent that these psychological factors play a critical role in determining the engagement and motivation that I exhibit in an academic realm. I have been highly motivated and engaged with my coursework since returning to college in the Fall of 2014, but I was not like this during my high school years. I think this theory helps to explain why I have exerted different levels of motivation in these phases of my life. First, I did not feel autonomous about my coursework in high school. During high school, I spent

    Read More

  • Langston Hughes Oppression

    139 Words  | 1 Pages

    Langston Hughes gained fame during the explosion of African-American artistic expression, a period called the “Harlem Renaissance”. Hughes was a prominent figure during the Harlem Renaissance, as he and many other African-American poets, novelists, artists and singers rose in popularity in this movement based out of Harlem, New York. The oppression of African-Americans served as an artistic inspiration for Hughes, with many of his poetry and stories dealing with the plight of African-Americans during the time of Jim Crow laws in the United States. The disdain for the oppression and discrimination Hughes experienced matches only the patriotism and adoration he felt for America, ‘the land of opportunity’. In his poem I, Too, Hughes explores the

    Read More

  • The Negro Speaks Of Rivers Analysis

    594 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his well-known poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Langston Hughes explores a personal, though paradoxically universal, relationship with some of the world’s most notable rivers. The poem essentially describes the speaker (as a representative for the entire African-American culture) as having experienced and internalized various events surrounding rivers over a period of centuries. A river, a natural and ancient entity, is not subject to human wants or desires and therefore can simply exist while humanity crumbles around it. By including rivers spanning continents and chronologies, Hughes has successfully captured a glimpse of the human condition in its various states and sentiments. Hughes uses the river as a metaphor for transcendence of the human soul in the face of persecution. Reflecting upon the experience of the African-American people on the banks of some of the world’s greatest rivers, the narrator has cemented the will of an age-old people as being timeless and deeply rooted like the mighty waters that helped them to thrive.

    Read More

  • What are the Keys to Academic Success and Personal Development in High School?

    606 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a high school senior I have learned that one must be motivated. One needs that drive or goal, that energizes their behavior towards a goal. Without being motivated we can have academic success.When a person is motivated th...

    Read More

  • 8.6 Motivational Challenges Case Study

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    We have seen many of the ways in which motivation can be built and sustained. People get motivated based on the need stage they are in based on Maslow’s hierarchy in rising order- physiological, safety, social, esteem and self actualization. People are motivated to achieve their goals be it personal or work related in their business or organizations that they are employed. As in every sphere of life, challenges exist in the motivation area too. Due to these challenges, people get de-motivated from pursuing their goals. But there are many ways how one can overcome these challenges. The below list will help us look from the challenge perspective and help to identify and remove obstacles in our path.

    Read More

More about The Struggle of Women in Maquiladoras

Open Document