IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/femeco/v6y2000i3p59-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making Labor Flexible: The Recomposition of Tijuana's Maquiladora Female Labor Force

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Fussell

Abstract

This article revisits the debate over the benefits of export-oriented manufacturing employment for women by taking up Linda Lim's (1990) critique that such research is often biased in its methods and conclusions. Using a sample of 198 women workers from the 1993 Labor Trajectories Survey, I conduct a multivariate statistical analysis to test whether the social and demographic characteristics of the female maquiladora labor force influence their position in the labor market. I find that maquiladoras in Tijuana, Mexico, employ married women, women with children, and women with low levels of education who constitute a low-wage sector of the labor force with few other employment alternatives. In the drive to keep production costs low, multinational manufacturers have tapped into this low-wage labor force, thereby taking advantage of women's labor market disadvantages and making a labor force willing to accept more "flexible" terms of employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Fussell, 2000. "Making Labor Flexible: The Recomposition of Tijuana's Maquiladora Female Labor Force," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 59-79.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:6:y:2000:i:3:p:59-79
    DOI: 10.1080/135457000750020137
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/135457000750020137
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/135457000750020137?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Standing, Guy, 1999. "Global Feminization Through Flexible Labor: A Theme Revisited," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 583-602, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. James Heintz, 2011. "Global Labor Standards: Their Impact and Implementation," Chapters, in: Jonathan Michie (ed.), The Handbook of Globalisation, Second Edition, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Elissa Braunstein, 2019. "Foreign direct investment and development from a gender perspective," Chapters, in: Jonathan Michie (ed.), The Handbook of Globalisation, Third Edition, chapter 10, pages 178-187, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Günseli Berik & Yana Van Der Meulen Rodgers, 2010. "Options for enforcing labour standards: Lessons from Bangladesh And Cambodia," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 56-85.
    4. Amin,Mohammad & Islam,Asif Mohammed, 2021. "Exports and Women Workers in Formal Firms," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9527, The World Bank.
    5. Rasmané Ouedraogo & Elodie Marlet, 2018. "Foreign Direct Investment and Women Empowerment: New Evidence on Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 2018/025, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Chen, Zhihong & Ge, Ying & Lai, Huiwen & Wan, Chi, 2013. "Globalization and Gender Wage Inequality in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 256-266.
    7. Maryam Jamielaa, 2018. "Trade openness and female-male earnings differentials: Evidence from Indonesia," Economic Journal of Emerging Markets, Universitas Islam Indonesia, vol. 10(1), pages 82-92, April.
    8. Seguino, Stephanie, 2006. "The great equalizer?: Globalization effects on gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean," MPRA Paper 6509, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Dong, Xiao-yuan & Zhang, Liqin, 2009. "Economic transition and gender differentials in wages and productivity: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing enterprises," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 144-156, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Natalia Flores Garrido, 2020. "Precarity From a Feminist Perspective: A Note on Three Elements for the Political Struggle," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 582-590, September.
    2. Ebru Kongar & Mark Price, 2007. "Is White the New Blue? The Impact on Gender Wage and Employment Differentials of Offshoring of White-collar Jobs in the United States," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2007_08, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    3. Yana van der Meulen Rodgers & Gunseli Berik, 2006. "Asia's Race to Capture Post-MFA Markets: A Snapshot of Labor Standards, Compliance, and Impacts on Competitiveness," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2006_02, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    4. Gunatilaka, Ramani., 2013. "To work or not to work? : Factors holding women back from market work in Sri Lanka," ILO Working Papers 994838403402676, International Labour Organization.
    5. Sassen, Saskia, 2008. "Two stops in today's new global geographies: shaping novel labor supplies and employment regimes," Asuntos de Género 5815, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    6. Plank, Leonhard & Rossi, Arianna & Staritz, Cornelia, 2012. "Workers and social upgrading in "fast fashion": The case of the apparel industry in Morocco and Romania," Working Papers 33, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    7. Tanaka, Kiyoyasu & Greaney, Theresa M., 2024. "Trade and employment in the formal and informal sectors: A natural experiment from Cambodia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. Oscar Molina Tejerina & Luis Castro Peñarrieta, 2020. "Unexplained Wage Gaps in the Tradable and Nontradable Sectors: Cross-Sectional Evidence by Gender in Bolivia," Investigación & Desarrollo, Universidad Privada Boliviana, vol. 20(1), pages 5-23.
    9. Baliamoune–Lutz, Mina & McGillivray, Mark, 2015. "The impact of gender inequality in education on income in Africa and the Middle East," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-11.
    10. Neetha N, 2010. "Women's Work in the Post Reform Period: An Exploration of Macro Data," Working Papers id:2885, eSocialSciences.
    11. Chaudhary, Ruchika. & Verick, Sher., 2014. "Female labour force participation in India and beyond," ILO Working Papers 994867893402676, International Labour Organization.
    12. Schober, Thomas & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2011. "Gender Wage Inequality and Economic Growth: Is There Really a Puzzle?--A Comment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1476-1484, August.
    13. Ali Fakih & Pascal L. Ghazalian, 2013. "Female Labour Force Participation in MENA's Manufacturing Sector: The Implications of Firm-related and National Factors," CIRANO Working Papers 2013s-46, CIRANO.
    14. Karin Astrid SIEGMANN, 2005. "The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing: Potential effects on gendered employment in Pakistan," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 144(4), pages 401-421, December.
    15. Grown, Caren & Elson, Diane & Cagatay, Nilufer, 2000. "Introduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 1145-1156, July.
    16. Kate Grosser & Jeremy Moon, 2019. "CSR and Feminist Organization Studies: Towards an Integrated Theorization for the Analysis of Gender Issues," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 321-342, March.
    17. T. Paul Schultz, 2006. "Does the Liberalization of Trade Advance Gender Equality in Schooling and Health?," Working Papers 935, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    18. Matthias Busse & Christian Spielmann, 2006. "Gender Inequality and Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 362-379, August.
    19. Purna Banerjee & C. Veeramani, 2019. "Export competitiveness, labour laws, and gender differences in job dynamics: Analysis of manufacturing industries across Indian States," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2019-035, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    20. Bellhouse, Tom & Salido Marcos, Joaquín, 2016. "Economic and Social Upgrading: Definitions, connections and exploring means of measurement," Sede Subregional de la CEPAL en México (Estudios e Investigaciones) 40096, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:6:y:2000:i:3:p:59-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RFEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.