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Gendering Class in Latin America: How Women Effect and Experience Change in the Class Structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Amy Bellone Hite  and
Jocelyn S. Viterna
Amy Bellone Hite
Affiliation:
Xavier University of Louisiana
Jocelyn S. Viterna
Affiliation:
Tulane University
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Abstract

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Female participation in the Latin American paid labor force is increasing dramatically. Building upon Portes and Hoffman's (2003) model, we use occupational data to measure gendered changes in Latin America's class structure over the last two decades of economic restructuring and adjustment and to investigate the causes and consequences of these regional patterns. Our results suggest two important conclusions. First, economic adjustment and restructuring is increasing women's parity with men in terms of class position largely as a consequence of the deterioration of men's once-privileged location in the class structure. Second, recent economic adjustment and restructuring has altered power relations between social classes in Latin America in part because it has inspired both qualitative and quantitative changes in the gendered composition of Latin American labor. The number of women entering the work force, and the labor conditions suffered particularly by women workers, has resulted in both the literal and figurative “emasculation” of the Formal Proletariat. These preliminary findings make clear the explanatory benefits of including gender in analyses of changes in the Latin American class structure.

Resumen

Resumen

En América Latina, la participación de la mujer en la mano de obra remunerada está aumentando de manera dramática. Basándonos en el modelo de Portes y Hoffman (2003), usamos datos ocupacionales para medir los cambios producidos por factores de género en la estructura de clase de América Latina en las últimas dos décadas de reestructuración y ajuste económicos; y a su vez para investigar las causas y las consecuencias de estos patrones a nivel regional. Nuestros resultados sugieren dos importantes conclusiones. Primero, la reestructuración y ajuste económicos están incrementando la paridad de las mujeres con los hombres en términos de posicionamiento de clase, en gran medida como consecuencia del deterioro de la posición de los hombres, ya no tan privilegiada, dentro de la estructura de clase. Segundo, el reciente ajuste y reestructuración económicos han alterado las relaciones de poder entre clases sociales en América Latina en parte porque han inspirado cambios cuantitativos y cualitativos en la composición de género de la oferta de trabajo latinoamericana. El número de mujeres que entran al mercado laboral, junto con las condiciones laborales sufridas particularmente por las mujeres, ha resultado en la “castración” —literal y figurativa— del proletariado formal. Estos hallazgos preliminares aclaran los beneficios de la inclusión de género dentro de los análisis del cambio de la estructura de clases en América Latina.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , June 2005 , pp. 50 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the University of Texas Press

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