Doctoral Dissertation Research: Mexico's "New" Rural Women: Gendered Labor and Formulations of Rural Citizenship

随着越来越多的男子离开墨西哥农村到美国寻找工作，妇女被留下来，在农业领域、家庭和社区中扮演新的角色。 虽然美国的研究-墨西哥移民通常关注移民劳工汇款的经济影响，美国无证工人的政治和经济作用，以及移民过境和定居的经验，较少关注墨西哥派遣社区的劳动力转移动态。 国家主导的促进基层发展倡议的发展项目的作用是改变墨西哥农村劳动关系的一个关键方面。 作为墨西哥政府努力培养新的农村公民的一部分，他们不再依赖国家的支持，而是将国家视为自主经济繁荣的伙伴，国家领导的发展项目专门针对农村妇女。 本研究的目的是调查男性移民和国营发展项目是如何重塑妇女的农村劳动力在瓦哈卡州。 通过家庭和社区调查的定量方法和参与者观察，生活史和半结构化访谈的定性方法，本研究将探讨如何在墨西哥戏剧性的政治和经济变化是重组性别劳动力在三个关键领域：家庭劳动，生产性经济劳动和政治劳动。 本研究将围绕三个主要的研究问题：1。来自瓦哈卡农村的男性移民如何重组家庭劳动关系？ 2.新的性别劳动关系如何重塑瓦哈卡社区妇女的政治角色？ 3.如何改变性别劳动关系纳入联邦政府的“新”生产性公民的重新概念？ 通过对这些地区不断变化的劳动关系的研究，本项目将探讨瓦哈卡州妇女和墨西哥政府如何利用不断变化的劳动话语和实践来形成一种新型的农村性别公民身份。虽然经济全球化的研究强调了工业劳动力的日益女性化及其对全球南部妇女的剥削后果，他们往往忽视了农村地区性别化劳动关系的动态。 通过提供一个民族志帐户的政治影响，在农村瓦哈卡劳动实践的转变，这项研究突出了农村妇女的劳动斗争在更广泛的政治和经济背景下。 通过向学术界、墨西哥发展官员和瓦哈卡社区传播，这项研究将对如何制定发展政策以及社区如何寻求参与或挑战发展举措产生潜在影响。 同样，该项目侧重于妇女的政治参与，这将有助于国家领导的和基层的举措，这些举措旨在扩大墨西哥妇女在社区、州和国家各级进入政治舞台的机会。

As men increasingly migrate away from the Mexican countryside to seek work in the United States, women are left behind to take on new roles in agricultural fields, households, and communities. While studies of U.S.-Mexican migration often focus on the economic impact of remittances from migrant laborers, the political and economic role of undocumented workers in the United States, and migrant experiences of border crossing and settlement, less attention is given to the shifting dynamics of labor in Mexican sending communities. The role of state-led development projects that promote grassroots development initiatives is a key aspect of transforming labor relations in rural Mexico. As part of the Mexican state's attempt to formulate a new rural citizen who no longer relies upon state support, but rather sees the state as a partner in self-initiated economic prosperity, state-led development projects are specifically targeting rural women. The objective of this study is to investigate how male emigration and state-run development projects are reshaping women's rural labor in the state of Oaxaca. Through quantitative methods of household and community surveying and qualitative methods of participant observation, life histories, and semi-structured interviews, this study will examine how dramatic political and economic changes in Mexico are restructuring gendered labor in three key areas: household labor, productive economic labor, and political labor. The study will center around three main research questions: 1. How is male emigration from rural Oaxaca restructuring household labor relations? 2. How do new gendered labor relations reshape women's political roles in Oaxacan communities? 3. How are changing gendered labor relations incorporated into the federal government's re-conceptualization of "new" productive citizens? Through an examination of changing labor relations in each of these areas, this project will explore how both Oaxacan women and the Mexican state are using changing labor discourses and practices to formulate a new type of rural gendered citizenship.While studies of economic globalization have highlighted the increasing feminization of industrial labor and its exploitative consequences for women in the global south, they have often overlooked the dynamics of gendered labor relations in rural areas. By providing an ethnographic account of the political effects of shifting labor practices in rural Oaxaca, this study highlights the rural aspects of women's labor struggles within broader political and economic contexts. Through dissemination to academics, Mexican development officials, and Oaxacan communities, this research will have a potential impact upon how development policy is formulated and on how communities seek to engage or challenge development initiatives. Likewise, the project's focus on women's political participation will contribute to both state-led and grassroots initiatives that seek to expand women's access to political arenas in Mexico at the scales of the community, the state, and the nation.