Maquiladoras : liberation or exploitation

Abstract

Maquiladoras: Liberation or Exploitation, is a examination of women who worked in Free Trade Zones of Nicaragua. The key basis of the research has been to discover whether working in the maquiladoras is benefiting and liberating to the women, which some academics argue, or whether the work in this formal labour sector is exploitative, which other academics argue. This study was performed through a four month, in country stay, and with the help of a local non-government organization Movimiento de Mujeres Trabajadoras y Desempleadas "Maria Elena Cuadra" (MEC).

The first section of the paper takes a thorough examination of the history of Nicaragua, looking at issues such as political, social and economic sectors. The history of women is also examined since Nicaragua has a unique history of women. The revolution of 1979 is also detailed, and the involvement of women within the revolution. Because Nicaragua has had Free Trade Zones for several decades, these areas are also examined, along with their development to the present research period.

The second section of the paper examines the organization MEC, their previous work, and their present work. Since MEC also researches the area of women in the maquila's, their research is also examined, along with some of their findings which is relevant to the research performed. The key methods of research for this study were through participant observation, semi-structured interviews with the staff of MEC, and also through a discussion group that was performed with seventeen maquila working women. The discussion group had specific topics to discuss, and also other discoveries were made during this discussion group.