For the past 35 years, borderland industry has opened employment opportunities for women in the community of Nogales, Arizona. However, the expansion of free trade with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has aggravated economic instability by promoting the flexible use of labor, a practice that women have increasingly accommodated. Case studies of women engaged in the retail and maquiladora industries illustrate the interplay between flexible employment, reproduction, and education. These cases suggest that a strong connection between flexible employment and reproduction is sustained by ideologies that see these as mutually complimentary. At the same time, the connections between education and employment and reproduction activities are notably absent or weak. We argue that investing in the education of women,
which could lead to more predictable employment, is in this way subverted by regional economic instability. The alienation
of education from the other two realms of women’s activities works to the advantage of flexible employment practices and advances the underdevelopment of human capital on the U.S.-Mexico border.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/219197 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | O’Leary, Anna Ochoa, Valdez-Gardea, Gloria Ciria, González, Norma |
| Contributors | University of Arizona, Mexican American Studies and Research Center, Colegio de Sonora, Urban and Environmental Studies Program, University of Utah, Department of Education, Culture and Society |
| Publisher | University of Arizona, Mexican American Studies and Research Center |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Book |
| Rights | The MASRC Working Paper Series © The Arizona Board of Regents |
| Relation | MASRC Working Paper Series; 32, http://mas.arizona.edu/node/658 |
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