Economic Restructuring and Gender Subordination

This article discusses the issue of whether wage labor merely exploits women as a source of cheap labor and adds to the domestic burden or whether wage labor gives women greater autonomy and raises their consciousness regarding womens subordinate role in society. These issues are discussed for women in Cuba Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. These countries share a history of Spanish colonialism plantation slavery and US control. The differences are in state policies. Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have export-led industrial policies. Cuba after the revolution developed state control of industry and an import-substitution industries. Female participation rates are affected differently in these three countries. Female labor force participation rates have increased in all three countries but only in Cuba were women not replacing men as the primary income producer. The Cuban socialist state decreased household dependence on income for assuring basic needs and dependence on male wages. Womens increased earnings in all three countries led to an erosion of male authority and a redefinition of their domestic role. Women gained more power in the household. The authors prior analysis of women industrial workers indicates that state policy affects the demand for male and female labor and the supply through education and training. State policy and access to income-producing resources and alternative income sources affect the impact of paid wage labor on womens status. Other factors affecting the impact of labor on womens status include the structure of the household and gender ideology. Women in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are assuming greater economic responsibility due to a decline in real wages and in male employment opportunities. Women do not have access to income-producing resources equal to mens access. Economic restructuring appears to be shifting the burden of family survival from men to women. Economic restructuring weakens labor and strengthens capital and both women and men benefit little. Gender consciousness is growing.