Women on the Line: Strategies of Resistance in the Wake of NAFTA, Global Economic Restructuring, and Transnational Assembly Line Displacement in Mexico

• Main Author: Duke, Natalie Anne, 1979-
• Language: en_US
• Published: University of Oregon 2009
• Subjects: Women offshore assembly industry workers > Effect of globalization on; Maquiladoras; NAFTA; North American Free Trade Agreement (1992); Globalization
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/9850

xiii, 103 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. === NAFTA has had a significant impact on production, exchange, and labor throughout North America. An area significantly transformed by NAFTA is the maquiladora production region in northern Mexico. While once predominantly a female space of labor, we now see more male workers employed by industrial units there than in the past. This thesis interrogates what has happened to the women workers of the maquiladoras. In what ways have NAFTA, global economic restructuring, and the resultant legal atmosphere affected women's daily lives and employment opportunities? What strategies of resistance have these women developed to contend with the new economic landscape? I argue that women are adapting by moving away from the U.S.- Mexico border to work in garment industries and resisting the economic and social pressures resulting from globalization by engaging in subtle protests within in the maquiladoras, opting to participate in the informal economy, and utilizing community groups to facilitate social change. === Committee in Charge: Dr. Anita M. Weiss, Chair; Professor Ibrahim Gassama; Professor Marcela Mendoza