Latin American Women Workers in Transition: Sexual Division of the Labor Force in Mexico and Colombia in the Textile Industry

1984 ◽  
Vol 40 (04) ◽  
pp. 491-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Keremitsis
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Transition Element ◽  
Work Force ◽  
World Market ◽  
Sexual Roles ◽  
Urban Labor

When the cottage textile industries in 18th century England were moved to urban factories, women and children also left their private existence and moved into public work in the mills. The situation was similar in Mexico and Colombia when their factories started to produce cloth, but after an urban labor force developed, men replaced women in the plants. In developed nations, women still dominate the textile work force, especially when products compete on a world market. Few studies have attempted to analyze the difference historically as the labor force divides into sexual roles, either in advanced or underdeveloped nations. Although Ester Boserup's study of third world women indicates that this transition occurs (in one direction) when mechanization advances to replace manual or simple tasks, lately her conclusions have been questioned as technologically advanced industries such as computers have hired women rather than men to assemble instruments. The textile industry has often been viewed as a force in the beginning of industrialization and can illustrate how women are used as a transition element as they first move from private home activities into public roles in the factories and then as plants become more capitalintensive, they are again returned to their private space. At first their willingness to accept low wages in the mills left the men performing agricultural labor. As promotion of industrialization brought an urban labor force into existence, a variety of social and economic pressures removed them from participation in production of goods. Their reserve labor remained available for other functions as the need arose.

Latin American Women Workers in Transition: Sexual Division of the Labor Force in Mexico and Colombia in the Textile Industry

1984 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Keremitsis
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Transition Element ◽  
Work Force ◽  
World Market ◽  
Sexual Roles ◽  
Urban Labor

When the cottage textile industries in 18th century England were moved to urban factories, women and children also left their private existence and moved into public work in the mills. The situation was similar in Mexico and Colombia when their factories started to produce cloth, but after an urban labor force developed, men replaced women in the plants. In developed nations, women still dominate the textile work force, especially when products compete on a world market. Few studies have attempted to analyze the difference historically as the labor force divides into sexual roles, either in advanced or underdeveloped nations. Although Ester Boserup's study of third world women indicates that this transition occurs (in one direction) when mechanization advances to replace manual or simple tasks, lately her conclusions have been questioned as technologically advanced industries such as computers have hired women rather than men to assemble instruments. The textile industry has often been viewed as a force in the beginning of industrialization and can illustrate how women are used as a transition element as they first move from private home activities into public roles in the factories and then as plants become more capitalintensive, they are again returned to their private space. At first their willingness to accept low wages in the mills left the men performing agricultural labor. As promotion of industrialization brought an urban labor force into existence, a variety of social and economic pressures removed them from participation in production of goods. Their reserve labor remained available for other functions as the need arose.

scholarly journals Labour Conflicts and Working-Class Culture in Early Modern Holland

1990 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolf Dekker
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Class Culture ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
Modern Era

SUMMARYFrom the 15th to the 18th century Holland, the most urbanized part of the northern Netherlands, had a tradition of labour action. In this article the informal workers' organizations which existed especially within the textile industry are described. In the 17th century the action forms adjusted themselves to the better coordinated activities of the authorities and employers. After about 1750 this protest tradition disappeared, along with the economic recession which especially struck the traditional industries. Because of this the continuity of the transition from the ancien régime to the modern era which may be discerned in the labour movements of countries like France and England, cannot be found in Holland.

Demography and Dispossession: Explaining the Growth of the Global Informal Workforce, 1950-2000

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 679-703
Author(s):  
Aaron Benanav
Keyword(s):  
Labor Force ◽  
High Income ◽  
Informal Employment ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Demographic Expansion ◽  
Urban Workers ◽  
Urban Labor ◽  
Rural To Urban Migration ◽  
Global Population ◽  
Demographic Growth

AbstractSince 1950, the world’s urban labor force has expanded dramatically, a process that has been accompanied by a large increase in informal employment. Accounts of these phenomena generally assume that urban workers without formal work are mostly recent migrants from the countryside. This article shows that outside of China, most of the growth of the world’s urban workforce has been the consequence of demographic expansion rather than rural-to-urban migration. A large portion of the world’s growing urban-born workforce has ended up in informal employment. I develop a concept of demographic dispossession to explain the relatively autonomous role demographic growth has played, first, in the proletarianization of the global population and, second, in the informalization of the urban workforce. I then explore the reasons why demographic growth in low- and medium-income countries tended to be more rapid and urban than demographic growth had been historically in the high-income countries.

scholarly journals Educational, Social and Economic Status of Women in Textile Industry in India

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
Sivasubramanian K
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Educational Status ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Work Place ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Wage Earning

Retailing is one of the important industry in India recorded for almost 10 percent of nation’s GDP. The lesser wage earning workers are vulnerable to aggravation and other discrimination at work place. In the informal textile retail shops, women have to pass through numerous problems as they have to manage with both sides of life, say work and family. Predominantly, such women are semi-literates, educated unemployed and financially deprived. It is revealed from the data that there are 58 percent of the women workers are between ages of 30 to 40 and there is no women worker above 45 years. It is clearly shows that the shop owners are not interested to recruit or retain the women workers above 45 years. The educational status of workers constitutes an average of secondary level schooling and they could able to read, write in the local language and understand English slightly. Almost 60 percent of the women workers are belonging to marginalized section of the society. In the present study, social and economic status of sample respondents are analyzed and found that they are poorly paid in terms of wages, and work under deprived and vulnerable working condition. It is revealed from the primary data that women workers are affected by many occupational health issues only after engaging in this work. Moreover, the women workers are sexually exploited and physically harassed.

Latin American countries and Russia in the international trade of the main tropical fruits

2021 ◽  
pp. 48-59
Author(s):  
Rafail R. Mukhametzyanov ◽  
◽  
Ana Isabel Fedorchuk Mac-Eachen ◽  
Gulnara K. Dzhancharova ◽  
Nikolay G. Platonovskiy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
World Market ◽  
Tropical Fruits ◽  
Tropical Fruit ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Food And Agriculture Organization ◽  
The World ◽  
Latin American Countries

The orientation of a part of the population of economically developed countries to a healthy diet, the spread of ideas of vegetarianism, concern for the environment, and relatively higher incomes contributed to an increase in demand for fruits, berries and nuts of tropical and subtropical origin. Some of them, in particular bananas, oranges, tangerines, lemons, have become common food products and practically everyday consumption for the majority of the population of developed countries in the last quarter of the 20th century. In the future, some other types of fresh fruit and berry products from the tropics and subtropics (for example, pineapple, kiwi, avocado) gradually, due to increased production and international trade, also became more economically available to the ordinary consumer. Based on the analysis of statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for 1961-2019, the article shows a number of trends in international trade (for exports) of major tropical fruits are reflected, with a deeper look at the participation of Latin American countries in this process. It was revealed that some states of this region, such as Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Honduras, Peru, Brazil, Chile, occupy significant positions in the supply of bananas, pineapple, avocado, mango, papaya to the world market. Currently, Russia is one of the largest countries in the world in terms of imports of fruit and berry products, therefore, the issue of its participation as a subject of demand in the world tropical fruit market is raised.

Practical innovation: Partnerships between Scientists and Farmers

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Conway
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Multiple Cropping ◽  
Agricultural Revolution ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
Local Selection ◽  
Exciting Potential ◽  
New Material

Farmers have been experimenters since the beginning of agriculture. Hunters and gatherers had long since learned to use fire as a means of stimulating the growth of tubers and other food plants, and of grass to attract game. Plant selection began when people found they could encourage favored fruiting trees by clearing their competitive neighbors, but the first steps toward intensive plant breeding were taken when an individual, probably a woman rather than a man, deliberately sowed a seed from a high-yielding plant somewhere near the dwelling and observed it grow to maturity. In Europe and Asia, wheat and rice naturally attracted experimental attention. Because they are predominantly self-pollinating, selection produces rapid improvements and the rare crosses provide new material, often with exciting potential. The first bread wheat, a natural cross between emmer wheat and a wild goat grass, was noticed by farmers as early as 8,000 years ago; it was the kind of exotic cross that modern genetic engineers strive for and that is announced in the press, today, as a miracle variety. Farmers continued to domesticate new species, but most attention was devoted to the local selection and adaptation of the existing relatively small number of cereals and livestock. Experimentation also resulted in new whole systems of agriculture— swidden, rice terracing, home gardens, irrigated agriculture, the Mediterranean Trio of wheat, olives, and vines, the Latin American multiple cropping of maize, beans, and squashes, and, in many parts of the world, various forms of integrated crop-livestock agriculture. As is evident from their writings, the Romans analyzed the structure and functions of agricultural systems in a scientific manner. They also described the process of experimentation. Marcus Terentius Varro, who wrote a treatise on agriculture in the 1st century BC, urged farmers to both “imitate others and attempt by experiment to do some things in a different way. Following not chance but some system: as, for instance, if we plough a second time, more or less deeply than others, to see what effect this will have” (Hooper and Ash, 1935). The great agricultural revolution of Britain in the late 18th century was led by farmers.

scholarly journals Economic cycle and deceleration of female labor force participation in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquín Serrano ◽  
Leonardo Gasparini ◽  
Mariana Marchionni ◽  
Pablo Glüzmann
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Population Group ◽  
Female Labor Force Participation ◽  
Female Labor ◽  
The Business Cycle ◽  
Using Data

Abstract We study the behavior of female labor force participation (LFP) over the business cycle by estimating fixed effects models at the country and population-group level, using data from harmonized national household surveys of 18 Latin American countries in the period 1987–2014. We find that female LFP follows a countercyclical pattern—especially in the case of married, with children and vulnerable women—which suggests the existence of an inverse added-worker effect. We argue that this factor may have contributed to the deceleration in female labor supply in Latin America that took place in the 2000s, a decade of unusual high economic growth.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document