Globalization and Its Effects on Women in Mexico

By Martha Clarke,
Bowdoin College

This week we delved further into issues of globalization and migration as we heard from Irene Ortiz, a local feminist and community activist, about the feminization of poverty. As she began her talk, Ms. Ortiz told us that she would be presenting the point of view of real women, “mujeres de carne y hueso.” The main theme of the talk was the idea that even though globalization has brought much economic advancement to Mexico, women (in Mexico and elsewhere) are still very much second class citizens. Ms. Ortiz agued that globalization as a whole is a economic process that promotes mass impoverishment and funnels capital out of the pockets of the many into the hands of the few. She asserted that globalization has complicated matters for Mexican women in particular as they are forced into the workplace.

As we have seen throughout the course of the semester, NAFTA and neoliberal economics have made basic survival very difficult for Mexicans. We have learned that it takes four to five minimum wages for a Mexican family to buy just basic food products. Because of this, Mexican women are forced out of the home to work. While to many Americans this may seem like a liberating experience, Ms. Ortiz explained that this move into the formal workplace is simply a consequence of bad economic and political policies. Additionally, women are exposed to very poor working conditions; as in the United States, they don’t receive the same pay as men; in fact, 45% of working women receive 10% less pay than men for the same amount of work. Ms. Ortiz also explained that in cases where men and women do earn the same salary this is not because women’s salaries were raised to match men’s, it is because men’s salaries were dropped due to the Structural Adjustment Policies.

Beyond this, Latina women are subjected to harsh labor conditions in maquiladoras and other places of employment. Ms. Ortiz relayed an anecdote about a maquila in Guatemala in which the women employed there were encouraged to work triple shifts (18 hours straight). Because the factory was located so far away from the city center, women had to sleep on the floor in the hallways of the maquila in order to be on time for their next shift. Because of occurrences like this, Irene Ortiz explained that work has simply become another form of oppression for Mexican women, not an avenue towards economic independence as it is in the United States.

She furthered this argument by examining gender roles in the home. She explained that when they entered the workplace, women were forced to work a “double shift.” In addition to all their workplace responsibilities, they were also still responsible for cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children. Men are not expected to share in the work of the household. Furthermore, there is a huge emphasis on motherhood in Mexico. In order to truly fulfill one’s femininity, it is necessary for a woman to bear children. In many cases, both women and men see the inherent value of a woman as necessarily tied to her position as a mother or housewife. Unmarried women are looked down upon and discriminated against. Mexican women often have children very young and miss out on other social and economic opportunities. Because Mexico is a heavily Catholic country, there is little information available about family planning. In this way, Ms. Ortiz viewed motherhood (and the overemphasis on motherhood) as a type of forced repression. While the matriarch may be a powerful figure in the home, this power does not extend beyond self-sacrifice and caring for others and certainly does not extend into the public sphere.

Ms. Ortiz concluded her talk on a more positive note. She asserted that while the situation may look grim, great strides have been made. The internet and the media have drawn the world’s attention to the plight of women in developing nations. While the feminist movements of each country differ in many ways, people are beginning to mobilize and join together in the fight to promote women’s rights. This talk led me to several questions: What can we, as US citizens, do about the plight of women in Latin America? What are the struggles of minority women (particularly Latinas) living and working I the United States? How does migration affect gender roles?

Photo: Students pose with Irene Ortiz

Spring 2010 Semester Off to a Great Start!

“Migration & Globalization: Engaging Our Communities” is back, as this semester-long program occurs every spring in Cuernavaca, Mexico through the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College. We just began last week and are happy to report a fabulous new group of students from colleges as diverse as Augsburg, Bowdoin, Emory, Davidson, and Drake University. For the first half of the semester, we are also being accompanied by a recent graduate of Carleton College who is participating in many aspects of our program.

During the first week we spent a lot of time getting to know Cuernavaca and each other. We took Spanish pre-tests at the Universal Universal Center for Language and Social Communication, which is a highly respected Spanish school, where you can choose two of 17 different Spanish courses ranging from basic grammar and conversation courses to Contemporary Mexican Literature, Spanish for Heritage Speakers, and Mexican Art.

We also visited the ancient pyramids at Xochicalco in the southern part of the state of Morelos and learned about the cosmovision (worldview) of pre-Columbian peoples, whose spirituality emphasized unity, bipolar duality (as opposed to Western oppositional binary dualism), fluidity, interconnectedness, balance, and reciprocity.

At Xochicalco we saw the remains of magnificent temples built by the Nahua-speaking population that existed long before the Spanish conquest, as the construction there began approximately 200 years BCE, and the civilization flourished between 600 and 900 of this era. It is believed that the Toltec emperor Quetzalcoatl (known often as the “Mesoamerican Christ-figure”) studied astronomy in Xochicalco, whose principle temple is dedicated to the feathered-serpent God Quetzalcaotl. (Quetzal = the bird, & coatl = serpent in the Nahuatl language). As you can see in the picture of the pyramids both above and below, the carvings represent this great feathered serpent god who united the heavens and the earth. (In the picture below, his feathered heaad is in the upper far left corner and his serpent-like body winds around to the right.)

After visiting Xochicalco, we visited a nearby former sugarcane plantation called the Ex-Hacienda Santa Cruz. We learned about the history of the plantations that were established during the colonial period and the exploitation of both indigenous and African slaves who were forced to work on them.

We spent the night there and then spent the next day getting further acquainted with each other and talking about our roles as foreigners in Mexico. Our discussions included articles such as Ivan Illich’s “To Hell with Good Intentions” and several articles on power, privilege, and positionality. This is especially important because many of us will be conducting internships in Mexican organizations, as well as living with Mexican host families, and we want to be as sensitive as possible to this cultural context.

Have you ever been to Mexico? If so, did you visit ancient sacred sites such as Xochicalco? What have you learned about Mexican pre-Columbian civilizations and contemporary indigenous peopes? What are your thoughts about your/our responsibility as foreigners here? We’d love to hear your thoughts!