Maquiladoras

                When child labor is not enough to support a family, families are often forced to have the women work as well.  Often times it is difficult to find a job, and when women get desperate, they turn to maquiladoras.  Maquiladoras are factories on the border of Mexico and the United States that produce goods for foreign countries for very low prices.  Workers in maquiladoras not only have to work long hours for little pay, but they are also exposed to hazardous working conditions.  Toxic exposures industrial accidents are common, because workers are not given adequate training to operate the machinery they work with.  It is very common for maquiladoras to have other physical risks such as heat, poor ventilation, and noise as well (Brodzinsky).  Perspective maquiladora employees are also urine tested and asked violating questions about their sexual interactions to avoid hiring pregnant women (Human Rights Watch). 

Inside a Maquiladora       blogs.umass.edu

                With conditions like these, it is hard imagine how bad the lives of these women had to be for them to turn to maquiladoras.  Poverty makes people desperate, and these factories demonstrate how desperate some women become.  The sectors of the Mexican economy that generate the most jobs are culturally reserved for men, leaving women to turn to low paying jobs such as maquiladora employees (Brodzinsky).  This increases the number of women who cannot get decent paying jobs, further feminizing poverty.  These maquiladoras are also a huge disruptor of family life.  These women have to work twelve hour days only to go home and do their motherly duties of taking care of the house and the children.  Impoverished families learn to rely on each other in a way that middle and upper class families never have to think about.  Poverty often makes male and females equal in a house because when both people work to support the family, house duties often get split up, because it is impossible for a women to work long hours and then do all of her motherly duties on top of her long hours.  Maquiladoras and poverty also effect family life because it limits the number of children women can have.  Fertility rates are very high in Mexico, and large families have almost become a part of culture; a part of culture that impoverished families struggle to participate in.  Having children requires money and time to properly take care of the child, which impoverished families do not have.  The urine tests at maquiladoras also disrupt family life because maquiladora employers do not hire pregnant workers and they fire workers who become pregnant.  This makes it incredibly hard to start a family, which gives Mexican women yet another reason to make the journey across the border.