Miriam Goldstein

April 30, 2013

Female Immigrants, Fixed Ideologies: Why Increased Employment Opportunity for Immigrant
Women Does Not Mean More Power
The typical immigrant: He is the man on the ship, hat on his head and single suitcase in
hand. He is the refugee fleeing, an airplane carrying him to a foreign land. He is the migrant
worker who braves the border with only hope to guide him. Most importantly, he is not a
she. According to Yen Le Espiritu in Gender and Labor in Asian Immigrant Families,
starting with the 1965 Immigration Act and continuing into the present day, the number of
immigrant women coming into the United States now surpasses the number of men (630).
Additionally, today there are many more job opportunities for female immigrants (especially
unskilled laborers) in the U.S. than there are for their male counterparts, mostly due to the
growth of female-intensive industries, including the garment and microelectronics industries
and on a larger basis domestic work (Espiritu, 639). Despite the potential benefits of
increased employment opportunities for immigrant women, numerous downsides also exist. For
example, mens inability to provide for their families in the face of womens ability to do so may
result in increased depression in men and in some cases, even increased violence against women
(Espiritu, 638-41). Also, although immigrant women are employed even more frequently than
before, they must often still work a double day described by Evelyn Nakano Glenn in
Women and Labor Migration as the dual-obligation to work both outside of the home and to
continue carrying out wifely and motherly duties in the household (444-45). Perhaps more
crucially, because the industries unskilled female laborers often work in are so associated with
womens work to the point that employers will not even consider hiring men for these
positions increased female employment in these areas perpetuates both immigrant womens
(especially non-European immigrant womens) seclusion into positions where they have little
opportunity for job advancement or wage increases, as well as the stereotypes that make certain
industries associated with specific minority women (Espiritu, 642; Glenn, 445). At the outset,
increased job opportunities for women may appear advantageous, but in the long run, they only
lead to further discrimination both in terms of beliefs about womens abilities and what they
are permitted to do.
In a still patriarchal society, one may wonder why immigrant men would not always be
favored over immigrant women, why they would be unable to get jobs while their wives and
sisters can. However, the types of jobs that they cannot get according to Sylvia Chants
Female Employment in Puerto Vallarta are the kinds that men do not even want, because
these primarily domestic jobs are considered too feminine (407). In A Maid by Any Other
Name, Leslie Salzinger calls these jobs dirty work. They are demeaning, and people do not
want to do them unless they have no other options (449). The immigrant women only work in
these female ghettos of employment because of a comparative disadvantage to men in the
higher-wage labor market that gives women a comparative advantage in more menial
industries (Espiritu, 639). Unfortunately, most of these domestic jobs that women work in do not
pay as much as those jobs for which men are typically hired. Because men have traditionally
been the breadwinners, employers often assume that women can afford to work for less,
although this is increasingly not the case as households have begun to rely on the income of both
parents, or sometimes just on the earnings of the mother (Espiritu, 639, 642). Another major
reason that domestic jobs are open to immigrant women but not to men is simply because of
womens greater experience in that line of work. Just because of their familiarity with household
chores, it is assumed that women have domestic skills that make them more qualified to hold
jobs in the service industry (Chant, 408). Although this notion may be true to some extent, many
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jobs in the service sector do not require much skilled labor, and so it should not be difficult for
men to learn the minimal skills that domestic jobs require.
Most insulting of the reasons why employers may favor women for certain jobs
domestic or otherwise is the notion that women are innately suited for this work, that they do
not mind being enclosed in a small space and performing detailed yet mindless tasks. In fact, one
assembly shop hiring supervisor went so far as to say that there are just three things I look for
in hiring: small, foreign, and female (Espiritu, 639). Ideas such as these are the most dangerous
to the future of women workers, because they attest to supposedly essential, unchangeable
qualities of women and often more specifically of women of certain races or ethnicities that
make them suited for only some jobs and not for many others. The images of the black cleaning
woman, the Mexican maid, the Japanese housecleaner become so ingrained in the culture that
people begin to feel justified in relegating immigrant and minority women to the less desirable
industries (Glenn, 445). Consequently, more frequently than empowering women through
increased job opportunity, these types of jobs can actually be a means by which women are
disempowered, forced to remain on the lower rung of the workforce and of society in general.
Not only do stereotypes about womens capabilities force them into the more menial
industries, but these assumptions often also prevent them from holding the higher positions
within an industry. In Chants example of the tourist industry in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the
same notions of womens willingness to accept lower-paying jobs and their traditional
association with reproductive chores such as washing and bed-making constrain them to those
jobs that pay less and allow little opportunity for advancement (407). First of all, many jobs that
are reserved for men are those that involve more interaction with guests and therefore more tips;
female hotel workers are often secluded from the guests and therefore never earn this additional
wage supplement (which can sometimes amount to as much as five times normal wage for men)
(Chant, 407). Secondly, the types of jobs open to women in the tourist industry such as
positions as maids lack much of the hierarchical structure that would allow for promotions and
increased wages and job security. Men, on the other hand, may do restaurant work, a sector that
has a wide range of posts that employees can strive to hold (Chant, 408). Women in general
regardless of immigrant status or industry also have another responsibility that often prevents
them from achieving high employment status: motherhood. According to Sylvia Fuller in Job
Mobility and Wage Trajectories, because of pregnancy and child-rearing, women are more
likely than men to experience career interruptions (162). These career interruptions can be
problematic because they prevent women from forging the network connections that are
developed by those namely men who can stay with a company longer (Fuller, 162). In fact,
some companies may see a womans devotion to family responsibilities as a lack of commitment
to her a job, and they may be less inclined to rehire her (Fuller, 163, 171). Women who are
frequently forced to start at a new company after an extended period of unemployment also may
lose out on the opportunity to achieve valuable employee benefits, such as tenure (Fuller, 172).
The difficulties for immigrant women are only enhanced by the dual discrimination they face by
being both female and foreign. Consequently, although female immigrants have more chances
for employment than males, women are so held back within any industry that availability of jobs
alone does not make much of a difference in their overall empowerment.
While some well-off women may be able to quit their jobs indefinitely to raise children,
many women and especially immigrant women have long had to work the double day
(Glenn, 444). Although one would hope that immigrant womens increased employment in light
of the decreased employment of their husbands would result in a greater tendency for men to
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April 30, 2013

help around the house, this is often not the case (Chant, 408). According to Cecilia Menjvar and
Olivia Salcidos report, Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence, women may continue
doing household chores so as not to threaten their unemployed husbands power (907). Mens
loss of status can put pressure on their sense of well-being, causing them to feel depressed or
angry, the latter of which can present itself as violence directed against their spouses (Espiritu,
641). To ward off the domestic abuse or divorce that is common in situations where immigrant
women make more money than their husbands, women may purposely attempt to preserve
patriarchal norms within the household so as not to further incite their husbands wrath,
sometimes to such an extent that the husband still maintains authority over his wifes earnings
(Espiritu, 642; Menjvar and Salcido, 907). Thus, paid work does not lead to an advantage in
domesticsituations, because immigrant womens employment does not occur in isolation from
sociocultural and gender ideologies and the structural constraints in the contexts where they live
(Menjvar and Salcido, 908). Even with increased job opportunities, immigrant women cannot
avoid subordination, for it follows them both in the job market and even into their own homes.
More immigrant women may have jobs than ever before, but quantity has little to do with
quality. The type of jobs that these women have are often low-paying and menial. In addition,
womens seclusion into certain lines of work whether as women in general or as women of a
specific racial or ethnic background perpetuates the cycle that prevents women from ever
achieving better positions. While immigrant women must face increased pressures at work, they
get little help from their husbands, who may become bums, or even worse, violent abusers. Job
availability by itself does not improve the lives of immigrant women. However, if employers
begin hiring women for the same positions that are typically only given to men, and if husbands
begin helping more around the house and became less guarding of their absolute power, maybe
then women can really begin to see improvement in their status and, in turn, their lives.

Miriam Goldstein

April 30, 2013

Works Cited
Chant, Sylvia. "Female Employment in Puerto Vallarta: A Case Study." An Introduction to
Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World. By Inderpal Grewal and Caren
Kaplan. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. 406-09. Print.
Espiritu, Yen Le. "Gender and Labor in Asian Immigrant Families." American Behavioral
Scientist 42.4 (1999): 628-47. SAGE Journals. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.
Fuller, Sylvia. "Job Mobility and Wage Trajectories for Men and Women in the United States."
American Sociological Review 73.1 (2008): 158-83. SAGE Journals. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. "Women and Labor Migration." An Introduction to Women's Studies:
Gender in a Transnational World. By Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan. 2nd ed. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. 444-49. Print.
Menjvar, Cecilia, and Olivia Salcido. "Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence: Common
Experiences in Different Countries." Gender & Society 16.6 (2002): 898-920. SAGE
Journals. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.
Salzinger, Leslie. "A Maid By Any Other Name: The Transformation of "Dirty Work" by
Central American Immigrants." An Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a
Transnational World. By Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan. 2nd ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2006. 449-53. Print.