Making Labor Flexible: The Recomposition of Tijuana's Maquiladora Female Labor Force
通过分析1993年墨西哥蒂华纳198名女性工人的调查数据，发现出口加工厂雇佣已婚、有子女且低学历的女性，形成低工资且缺乏其他就业选择的劳动力群体，跨国制造商利用其劣势推动灵活用工。
This article revisits the debate over the benefits of export-oriented manufacturing employment for women by taking up Linda Lim's (1990) critique that such research is often biased in its methods and conclusions. Using a sample of 198 women workers from the 1993 Labor Trajectories Survey, I conduct a multivariate statistical analysis to test whether the social and demographic characteristics of the female maquiladora labor force influence their position in the labor market. I find that maquiladoras in Tijuana, Mexico, employ married women, women with children, and women with low levels of education who constitute a low-wage sector of the labor force with few other employment alternatives. In the drive to keep production costs low, multinational manufacturers have tapped into this low-wage labor force, thereby taking advantage of women's labor market disadvantages and making a labor force willing to accept more "flexible" terms of employment.