Working Women

Reading Ciudad Juárez really made me think about how my life would be different if I lived in those conditions. Like how at the age of 15, I was thinking about getting my license and what I was going to wear to prom. Yet these girls in Mexico are getting jobs to support their families and dealing with adult issues. In Ciudad Juárez, Claudia is faced with work even after a family tragedy. "She would forget about Jorge in his inexpensive casket. She would forget her quinceñera because there was nothing to remember" (Ciudad Juárez 28). It's such a different aspect from what we are used to hearing about. It seems like these girls are faced with so much pressure at a young age to grow up quickly. Even though I got a job at age 16, I was still earning at least 5 times more money than these girls are making. They have to work in maquiladoras doing tedious work for minimal money. "Mexican workers are cheap, often earning an average of only U.S. $5 or $6 a day" (Dwyer 466). I could make $5 on a tip off of one table I serve at my work. How can these conditions be fair? And how can a family live off such small earnings?

Not only is the money and amount of work unfair, but also the degradation of pregnant female workers. Female workers are subject to pregnancy testing before they are hired because it was too costly for the company. Women who do become pregnant while working are faced with either having to lose their job or lose the baby. One woman, Patricia, worked at a maquiladora and became pregnant after four years, but when she wanted to switch to an easier task, "she was pressured into resigning and lost all her rights" (Human Rights Watch 467). Some of these women have to choose work over having the baby because if they don't work then they cannot support their families with shelter, food, or clothing. It seems like a never-ending process of choosing life vs. death. Do we choose the life of our family or the life of a newborn baby?

And don't forget about the dangers of working in maquiladoras and traveling to and from work everyday. In Ciudad Juárez, the girls that were killed had worked at a young age at maquiladoras and had been killed or raped. It seems like most of these young girls are possibly being raped or murdered on their way to work. They seem to put themselves in danger everyday for the sake of their families. All that danger for such meager earnings to support a family.