Work, Health, and the Family: Gender Structure and Women's Status in an Undocumented Migrant Population

Work and health conditions of an undocumented Mexican migrant population in southern Illinois influence women's status within the family. The conditions threaten the physical and economic survival of the entire family, but pose special challenges to women who are dependent upon men and subordinated within the male/female relationship, even when they assume roles that are indispensable to the family, and that contradict the culturally ideal gender hierarchy. These contradictory roles fail to change the hierarchical ideology. Gender structure is shown to be dichotomous, consisting of behavior and ideology, which are differentially affected by the surrounding conditions. Additionally, men's and women's interpretations of ideology differ, as shaped by their respective experiences within the local context. Gender structure is shown to result from the undocumented family's adaptation to its surrounding conditions.