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

随着越来越多的男性离开墨西哥农村到美国寻找工作，女性被抛在后面，在农业领域、家庭和社区承担新的角色。虽然对美国-墨西哥移民的研究通常侧重于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，以及边境过境和定居的移民经历，但很少关注墨西哥移民社区劳动力的变化动态。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。墨西哥政府试图培养新的农村公民，让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合作伙伴，作为这一努力的一部分，国家主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如何重塑瓦哈卡州农村妇女的劳动力。通过家庭和社区调查的定量方法以及参与者观察、生活史和半结构化访谈的定性方法，本研究将考察墨西哥戏剧性的政治和经济变化如何在三个关键领域重构性别劳动：家庭劳动、生产经济劳动和政治劳动。该研究将围绕三个主要研究问题：1。瓦哈卡农村的男性移民是如何重构家庭劳动关系的？2. 新的性别劳动关系如何重塑女性在瓦哈卡社区的政治角色？3. 不断变化的性别劳动关系如何融入联邦政府对“新”生产性公民的重新概念化？通过对这些地区不断变化的劳动关系的考察，本项目将探讨瓦哈卡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制定一种新型的农村性别公民身份。虽然关于经济全球化的研究强调了工业劳动的日益女性化及其对全球南方妇女的剥削后果，但它们往往忽视了农村地区两性劳动关系的动态。通过对瓦哈卡农村劳动实践转变的政治影响提供民族志描述，本研究强调了在更广泛的政治和经济背景下妇女劳动斗争的农村方面。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倡议产生潜在影响。同样，该项目对妇女政治参与的关注将有助于国家主导和基层倡议，这些倡议旨在扩大墨西哥妇女在社区、州和全国范围内参与政治舞台的机会。

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.