Impact of Gender Disparities in Family Carework on Women's Life Chances in Chiapas, Mexico

In: Journal of comparative family studies, Band 36, Heft 2, S. 267-288

Abstract

The entry of large numbers of women with children into the paid labor force was a major demographic shift throughout North America and Europe during the last half of the 20th century. Mexican women have gone through similar changes in employment, though less research has been done to document their experiences. As in North America and Europe, Mexican women and girls are doing more unpaid caregiving and housework than men and boys. The issue of central concern in this article is the impact that gender disparities in family carework have on women's educational and work opportunities and experiences in Chiapas, Mexico. This article shows that girls' and women's unequal share of the unpaid childcare and housework has a substantial impact on their school performance, job choice, wages, and job retention. In 99 in-depth, open-ended interviews with working mothers in Chiapas, Mexico, 18% said that unpaid caregiving in the home affected their own education negatively; while 9% said that unpaid caregiving had a negative impact on their daughters' education. Thirteen percent of women interviewed reported job loss due to caregiving, while 43% reported income loss. Altogether, unpaid caregiving negatively impacted the school or work lives of 52% of the working mothers we interviewed. Their experiences are detailed in this article and have broad relevance for policy debates around the role of social services, educational and work benefits in improving the lives of men and women in Mexico and other industrializing countries.