Struggles In Guatemala

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Kevin Ibarra WGSS 401I Dr. Alimahomed November 19, 2013 Struggle of Southern Women “Thanks to ‘globalization’ women are on the move as never before in history.” This is one of many reasons in Barbara Ehrenreuch and Arlie Russell Hochschild articles, Global Woman. Globalization has affected many people across the world especially to many upcoming industrialized nations. This new era has been rapidly growing all around world resulting in richer countries getting richer and poor countries getting poorer. Global institutes and globalization has given opportunities to women in the South that has impacted them physically, mentally, and sexually. These women of the South move to a richer nation than theirs to look for a better job to be able…show more content…
In Mattson, Ayer, and Gerson article, “The Maquila in Guatemala: Facts and Trends” it talks about how in Guatemala they have approximately 230 factories that are called “Maquilas”. Maquilas in Guatemala have the meaning ‘sweatshops’ in English, meaning that the factory has workers putting excessive hours under unsanitary conditions with little pay. In these sweatshops approximately 80% of Maquila workers are women. The reason for this is because women of Guatemala actually wat to work but after joining for a few months many of them either resign or get fired for pregnancy. Many women complaint about these workshops due to the unsafe condition, verbal abuse, sexual harassment that happen to the female workers. There have been efforts to change the conditions that Maquila workers began organized unions in Guatemala. The only problem is that the laws in the Guatemalan Constitution and Labor Code are not enforced. One organization, ‘Camisas Modernas’, actually won a bargaining agreement in Guatemala’s Maquila sector giving workers a decent wage, legal benefits and a normal work week 44 hours; however, Phillips Van Heusen closed the factory and split it up in five areas. Even though all these conditions are around the women workers, these Maquila sweatshops are the only close enough paying jobs that are in the city meaning that many people leave their countryside
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