Expanding Women's Roles in Southern Mexico: Educated, Employed Oaxaqueñas

Acquisition of formal education affects the roles and status of women throughout the globe. However, idealized gender role stereotypes emphasizing women's reproductive roles are often barriers for rural and lower-income Latin American women who wish to pursue postprimary studies. Rural women in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, typically leave school before the junior-high-school level, marry in their teens, and spend their adult years as full-time wives and mothers who perform unremunerated labor within the home. In recent decades, a minority of rural-born Oaxaqueñas have obtained the skills and education required to enter the paid workforce in both support and professional positions. This ethnographic study examines how pursuit of formal education contributes to gender role change in Oaxaca. Analysis of personal and work experiences focuses on ways that local gender constructs incorporate these Oaxaqueñas' economic roles.