San Antonio College Library

"Published originally as La flor mas bella de la maquiladora, this book is based on interviews the author conducted with more than fifty Mexican women who work in the assembly plants along the U.S.-Mexico border. A descriptive analytic study conducted in the late 1970s, the book uses compelling testimonials to detail the struggles these women face."--BOOK JACKET.

Prior to the millennium, economists and policy makers argued that free trade between the United States and Mexico would benefit both Americans and Mexicans. They believed that NAFTA would be a "win-win" proposition that would offer U.S. companies new markets for their products and Mexicans the hope of living in a more developed country with the modern conveniences of wealthier nations. Blending rigorous economic and statistical analysis with concern...

Examines the gendered nature of social reproduction (i.e. household chores, child care and biological reproduction) and export production in the foreign-owned assembly plants in Nogales and Ciadad Madero at the border with the United States. Studies the intersection of class and gender dynamics in the radical transformation of Mexican industrial strategy, from a State-led import substitution emphasis to a neoliberal export-orientation based on transnational...

Since economists traditionally focus on market activities, women's non-wage labour has not been registered in works on economic development. On the other hand, women's wage labour has been described as supplementary or marginal to the household income as well as to economic development as a whole. The contributors to this collection did their research on women workers in countries from the core, the semiperiphery, and the periphery. The eight articles...