A Place Of Their Own? Women Organizers In The Maquilas Of Nicaragua And Mexico

This article compares women workers' movements in Nicaragua and Northern Mexico that have mobilized in opposition to the abuses occurring within export-processing zones (EPZs). We examine the opportunities and obstacles that such movements have faced as they seek social change via national and transnational coalitions. Our focus on gender tensions within transnational labor movements illustrates how power relations fracture the space of transnational civil society and constrain opposition to neoliberalism. Women's labor movements in both contexts confront highly gendered national and transnational political spaces, stemming in part from the hegemonic association of women with private space and men with public space. Significant differences in the opportunities for resistance emerging from local and national dynamics in Nicaragua and Mexico demonstrate that the realm of the so-called global cannot be understood as abstracted from historically situated localities.