Women informal labor

Throughout the 20th century women in Mexico have endured poverty and found it necessary to venture out into the workplace as a means of subsistence. The increase in industrialism during the time following the Mexican revolutions changed the methods of work within Mexico City and transformed workers’ lives. This era saw more women entering the work force. The type of work granted women in Mexico was mainly in the areas of cigarette and garment making (Porter, 2003).

Such occupation ensured that Mexican women spent several hours a day working in factories and performing repetitive actions. These women routinely worked double shifts, and though lower working hours were generally granted to married women, even these women were often required to work well beyond the normal working day (Tuñón, ). However, women soon began branching out into a wider variety of occupations, and especially since the 1995-95 economic crisis, many women have entered the informal labor force.

The male dominated culture has traditionally kept women from advancing in Mexican business, and this has been a major contributor to women’s strong position in the informal economy. This is specifically due to the general uneducated nature of the female population, as well as the patriarchal mentality that prevents qualified women from being hired over men (Nolan, The official age of the female workforce lies between 20 and 24, though since the crisis this has increased to 39 years. In contrast to this, the age range of women in economies of developed countries rises up to 60 years and beyond (In Mexico City proper, the percentage of females employed in the informal economy is approximately 49% (ILO, 2002).

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Since the informal economy accounts for approximately 64% of all Mexico’s commerce, women do contribute significantly to the economy. However, the compensation granted them as a result of their being a part of the informal economy in a developing country is far below that of their counterparts in the developed world (2002).

Women in Mexico City are by far more able to get work in the domestic and agricultural fields than in any area of labor (ILO, 2002). Some of these women, having no other skills, must settle for such work that no one else will perform. The nature of the tasks themselves, such as cleaning toilets and handling other unsavory waste, makes it likely that the women work out of desperation and for very low wages.

Other work done in agriculture and manufacturing is done in entrepreneurial fashion, but at such small scales that the profits to be gained are marginal. Despite this, the money earned by these women is approximately three times as high as the minimum wage that currently exists in the country (2002). Furthermore, this wage level lies below the per capita income received on a national level—placing women still within a dominant position in the country.

A significant portion of the work done in the informal economy is actually done for legitimate firms, but through subcontracts where workers work off site (ILO, 2002). Though this presents a brighter prospect for informal workers, only few women get a chance to participate in this kind of work, and it does not represent a significant portion of the Mexican informal economy. In contrast, most of the work done in the informal economies of developed countries exists in this form and much of it is performed by women (ILO, 2002).

When this work can be obtained by Mexican women, much of it is done perennially and women are granted contracts for only three or four months at a time. The problem is that the women who work under such conditions are not given the full range of benefits that are granted to those with full time status. Because informal jobs are held by the vast majority of the women in Mexico City’s workforce, it follows that most women in the workforce are forced to work without benefits. However, even women who work under these conditions fare better than those who work in other areas of the informal economy.

The fact that Mexican women’s wages in the informal economy lies above minimum wage loses its potency when one considers the loss of purchasing power suffered by the Mexican minimum wage during the 1990’s. This fact places Mexican women in a bad position compared with their counterparts in the developed world. Women of first world countries (such as South Africa and the United States) who engage in informal labor are generally found to perform “home-based work.” Such jobs are generally of a much more sophisticated nature involving modern technology and commanding much higher wages.

This fact points toward the relative difference between the education levels of women in Mexico compared with their counterparts in the developed world. A notable exception is in the similarity that might be found between women workers in Mexico many women within the informal sector South Africa. This is especially as it regards persons of the South African lower class who, as a relic of the Apartheid tradition, engage also in domestic, agriculture, and manufacturing work. However, as a general rule, women who work in the informal economy of Mexico City perform more manually grueling work for less pay and compensation than their first-world counterparts (Arizpe, 1997; ILO, 2002).

References

Arizpe, L. (1997). “Women in the informal labor sector: the case of Mexico City.” The women, gender, and development reader. Dhaka: University Press Limited.

ILO. (2002). Women and men in the informal economy: a statistical picture. Employment           Sector, International Labour Office. Geneva.

Nolan, J. P. (1999). Mexico business: the portable encyclopedia for doing business with Mexico.             New York: World Trade Press.

Porter, S. (2003). Working women in Mexico City. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Tuñón, J. (1999). Women in Mexico: a past unveiled. Austin: U. of Texas Press.

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