Doctoral Dissertation Research: Conceptualizing Skill: Female Supervisors in the Mexican Maquiladora Industry

小行星9406130 这项研究审查了技术变革和跨国公司生产模式的重组如何影响女工在这些设施中的纵向流动。 最近关于企业生产战略、工人-管理层关系和“熟练劳动力”培训的变化的研究表明，第三世界妇女在这些设施中的职位可能不像以前预期的那样一成不变。 拟议的研究调查在“全球装配线”从事“非技术”工作的妇女如何获得使她们有资格晋升到管理职位的“技能”。 这项研究的核心是技术工人在不同行业和几家工厂的工作场所被定义和认可的方式。 这项研究将探讨生产和革新技术的新要求如何改变第三世界工人在多国生产设施中所发挥的作用。为此，调查人员将研究墨西哥最大的出口加工区之一华雷斯城跨国公司中出现的墨西哥女性主管。 该提案的部分内容来自1992年在墨西哥进行的初步研究。 建议的研究重点是使用问卷调查和半结构化的采访工人，主管和经理在选定的工厂设在华雷斯城的跨国公司。 该项目将提供重要的新见解，以了解多国公司与工业化地区当地人口互动的方式，重点是性别关系如何既构成制造业组织结构的一部分，又因多国公司的存在而重新界定。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该项目还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。 ***

9406130 SCHOENBERGER This research examines how technological change and the reorganization of production paradigms in multinational companies affect the vertical mobility of women workers in these facilities. Recent scholarship on changes in firm production strategies, worker-management relations, and on the training of "skilled labor" suggest that the positions held by Third World women in such facilities may not be as static as previously expected. The proposed research investigates how women in "unskilled" jobs in the "global assembly line" have acquired the "skills" qualifying them for promotion into supervisory positions. Central to the study is the way that skilled labor comes to be defined and recognized at the workplace across industries and within several factories. This research will examine how new requirements for production and renovated technologies alter the roles played by Third World workers in multinational production facilities in situ. To do this, the investigators will study the emergence of Mexican female supervisors within multinational operations in Ciudad Juarez, which is one of Mexico's largest export processing zones. Portions of this proposal are derived from preliminary research conducted in Mexico in 1992. The proposed research focuses on the use of both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with workers, supervisors, and managers at selected plants of multinational firms located in Ciudad Juarez. This project will provide important new insights into the understanding of the ways in which multinational firms interact with the local population in industrializing areas with an emphasis on how gender relations both constitute part of the structure of the organization of manufacturing and, in turn, are redefined because of the presence of the multinational firms. As a doctoral dissertation research improvement award, this project will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong indep endent research career. ***