Renegotiating the Marital Contract: lntrahousehold Patterns of Money Allocation and Women's Subordination Among Domestic Outworkers in Mexico City

Women in the Americas: Bridging the Gender Gap

“…Apart from the benefits of control over funds, which gradually translates into a more egalitarian position in the household, it has been proven that women tend to allot a higher proportion of income to the needs of the household (Blumberg, 1985;Beneria and Roldan, 1987). In Mexico, women contributed all their income to the home, as opposed to men, who only contributed three-quarters of their earnings (Roldan, 1988). Thus, although women earn less, their weighting in the family budget is greater.…”

“…Second, case studies (Beneria and Roldan, 1987;Tovar, 1992;Feijoo, 1992) have found that when women begin to contribute to the family earnings and, at the same time, are exposed to elements outside the home as a result of participating in 38 the community's social programs, the balance of power within the home is altered. Sometimes it has been possible to achieve what Roldan (1988) calls "renegotiation of the marital contract." In other cases, however, the weaker position of the men has led to an increase in family violence.…”

“…2 The second sub-element is the increased profile of intra-household dynamics. In contrast to traditional economics and social analysis, which stopped at the family's doorstep, the case is now being made that the relationships within the family are important variables and should be understood if benefits and resources are to reach all members (Blumberg, 1991;Roldan, 1988;Sen, 1990).…”

Class Stratification and Cooperative Production Among Rural Women in Central Mexico

“…The process of "domestication" or the expansion of the domestic mode of production supports the capitalist economy because it allows women workers, as housewives or semi-proletarians or both, to be economically exploited. The economy is provided with a reserve of labor that it does not have to support, while that "redundant population" engages in production that not even the producers view as "real work" (see Roldan 1988;Deere and Leon de Leal, eds., 1981;and Young 1978). This separation in capitalism between the location of production and consumption is achieved ideologically as much as physically and leads to reclassification of domestic work as a nonproductive activity.…”

“…Yet despite this economic reality, aspects of domestication are pervasive and affect women's labor inside and outside the wage labor force (see Arizpe 1986). As a result, although both men and women engage in various forms of domestic production, development causes the character of household negotiations to change in fundamental ways (see Roldan 1988).…”