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，在农田、家庭和社区中扮演新的角色。 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移民过境和定居的经历，但很少关注墨西哥输出社区劳动力动态的变化。 国家主导的促进基层发展举措的发展项目的作用是墨西哥农村劳动关系转型的一个关键方面。 墨西哥政府试图培养一种不再依赖国家支持、而是将国家视为自发经济繁荣的合作伙伴的新农村公民，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女性农村劳动力。 通过家庭和社区调查的定量方法以及参与观察、生活史和半结构化访谈的定性方法，本研究将探讨墨西哥巨大的政治和经济变化如何在三个关键领域重组性别劳动力：家庭劳动、生产性经济劳动和政治劳动。 该研究将围绕三个主要研究问题： 1. 瓦哈卡州农村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. 如何将不断变化的性别劳动关系纳入联邦政府对“新”生产性公民的重新概念化？ 通过对这些领域不断变化的劳动关系的考察，该项目将探讨瓦哈卡州妇女和墨西哥州如何利用不断变化的劳动话语和实践来制定新型农村性别公民身份。虽然经济全球化研究强调了工业劳动力日益女性化及其对南半球妇女的剥削后果，但他们往往忽视了农村地区性别劳动关系的动态。 通过对瓦哈卡州农村地区劳动实践转变的政治影响进行民族志描述，本研究强调了更广泛的政治和经济背景下妇女劳动斗争的农村方面。 通过向学者、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，该项目对妇女政治参与的关注将有助于国家主导和基层举措，这些举措旨在扩大墨西哥妇女在社区、州和国家层面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.