2
I. INTRODUCTION
I. INTRODUCTION
I. INTRODUCTION
I. INTRODUCTION
A substantial body of literature on Latin American politics examines the role of
organized labor in the construction of citizenship rights in the region. Broadly speaking,
this body of literature has argued that organized labor can be a social force supporting
democracy and the construction of citizenship rights because of its importance as an
economic actor and capacity for collective action, which includes its ability to represent the
interests of other sectors within civil society (O'Donnell and Schmitter 1986; Valenzuela
1989; Rueschemeyer, Stephens, and Stephens 1992). More recently, this literature has
tended to focus on the negative effects of neoliberal economic reform on this capacity. These
newer theories suggest that by weakening the overall capacity of organized labor, neoliberal
reform weakens the ability of organized labor to act as a pro-democratic force within civil
society (Huber, Rueschemeyer, and Stephens 1997; Roberts 1998; Cook 1999; Kleinberg
2000).
Yet when we examine the question of the construction of
women’s citizenship in
Latin America, there is relatively little attention paid to women’s increased participation in
the paid workforce or their long history of participation in labor union organizing.
Frequently, discussion of women’s participation in the workforce focuses on how women are
subjected to broader social, political, and (especially) economic processes such as neoliberal
economic reform (Benería and Feldman 1992; Safa 1995a, 1995b; Schild 2000), but it rarely
focuses on the political agency of women workers.
Using a citizenship approach to the understand the organization of union women
can be a fruitful way to redress this gap in the literature because it helps to underscore the
relative historic absence of women in the process of constructing citizenship rights, even
when they are involved with a crucial civil society actor like organized labor, and the steps
taken by union women to become more engaged in the construction process.
This essay examines the political agency of union women in Mexico and how they
have begun to organize with the explicit intention of challenging gender inequality (which
is often perpetuated by unions themselves) and advocating an expansion of women’s rights
of citizenship. I focus specifically on two organizations: the
Red de Mujeres Sindicalistas
(Network of Union Women), which focuses on conducting leadership training for women
unionists with the goal of transforming union culture, and the
Grupo de Trabajo sobre la
normatividad laboral con perspectivo de género (Working Group on Labor Reform with a
Gender Perpective), which is involved in the debate over the reform of Mexico’s Federal
Labor Law (LFT) with the intention of promoting women’s rights within the labor sphere.
I argue that despite economic changes that have weakened the ability of Mexican
unions to engage in the construction of citizenship, some women unionists in Mexico have
begun to organize in order to challenge union structures and advocate an expansion of
women’s labor rights. In fact, because of the nature of the labor unions in Mexico, the
expansion of the labor rights of
women workers is dependent on the mobilization of women
workers themselves, in collaboration with a broader network of union organizations, civil
associations, and government functionaries, to pressure both unions and the government
for change.
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Convention