CONSTRAINTS:
The Reconstruction of Gender
Relations Among Mexican
Immigrant Womenand Men
PIERRETTEHONDAGNEU-SOTELO
Universityof SouthernCalifornia
This article examines how gender shapes the migrationand settlementexperiencesof Mexican
immigrant women and men. The article compares the experiences of families in which the
husbandsdepartedprior to 1965 to those in whichthe husbandsdepartedafter 1965 and argues
that the lengthy spousal separations altered (albeit differentiallyfor each group) patterns of
patriarchal authorityand the traditionalgendered householddivision of labor.This induceda
trend toward more egalitarian conjugal relations upon settlementin the UnitedStates. Exam-
inmg the changing contexts of migrationilluminatesthefluid character of patriarchy'scontrol
in Mexican immigrantfamilies.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article was presented at the 1991 American
SociologicalAssociation meetingsm Cincinnati OH. I wouldlike to thankNazliKibria,Michael
Messner, Barrie Thorne, Maxme Baca Zinn, and the anonymous reviewersfor their helpful
comments on earlier drafts of this article, and I would like to acknowledge the Business and
Professional Women'sFoundationand the Centerfor U.S.-MexicanStudies at the Universityof
California at San Diego for partially supportingthe research and writing on which this article
is based.
States (Massey et al. 1987), the mannerin which people respond to these
macrostructuraltransformationsis shaped by gender. Since gender is rela-
tional, the analysis considers both women's and men's experiences during
the spousal separations. What women do during the spousal separations
ultimatelyaffects their husbandsand vice versa.
HOUSEHOLDS AND
MIGRATION WITHOUT GENDER?
SETTLEMENT AND
EMERGENT GENDER RELATIONS
DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH
Sample
Conventional random sampling techniques are not feasible when re-
searching an undocumented immigrant population in the United States
REMITTANCES
PERSUADING PATRIARCHY
SUBVERTING PATRIARCHY
THROUGH WOMEN'S NETWORKS
She would say to me, "They'll cure you in the United States, they'll cure
you over there,"and in thatway, she encouragedme to go. And she told me to
write to him so I could go. She stayed in Mexico for threemonths,and dunng
thosethreemonthsI keptwritinghim,to see if I couldgo, untilhe finallygave in.
CONCLUSION
new tasks and responsibilities,they learn to act more assertively and auton-
omously. This new sense of social power and later,for anothercohortof mi-
grant wives, additional access to women's network resources enable the
wives to migrate.
The unitaryhousehold model cannot explain these changes, because it
does not recognize power relations between women and men sharing the
same household. Women praying for the border patrol to capture their
husbandsand families in which spouses rely on differentnetworkresources
and on separateincome fundsto cover theirmigrationcosts call into question
assumptionsabout"householdmigrationstrategies"and the universalityof
sharedhouseholdresources.While some women are coerced into migration
by their husbands,this process is characterizedmore by contentionthan by
household harmony.
Once the families are reunitedin the United States, migrationand reset-
tlementprocesses elicit transformationsin patriarchalgenderrelations.Dur-
ing the spousalseparations,women oftenlearnto act independently,andmen,
in some cases, learn to cook and wash dishes. In other instances, they learn
to concede to theirwives' challenges to theirauthority.These behaviorsare
not readily discardedwhen the spouses are reunited.Not only is migration
shaped by gender relations, but perhaps more important,the migration
process experiencedby those who pursuefamily stage migrationforges new
gender relations.In this sense, migrationis both genderedand gendering.
The partialdismantlingof patriarchyrequireswomen's and men's partic-
ipation, as the experiences that men undergoin migrationand resettlement
arejust as significantin eliciting change as arethe women's experiences.Yet
even as elements of patriarchalbehavior erode, patriarchalbeliefs often
persist. Baca Zinn (1980, 52) found a similar lag in patriarchalvalues and
ideology among Chicanocouples who had shed patriarchalbehaviors.Once
again this reminds us that the characterof gender relationsdoes not neces-
sarily derive from cultural values and beliefs, as the acculturationmodel
posits.
What are the implicationsfor this new sector of U.S. society? While it is
too hasty to proclaimthatgender egalitarianismprevails in interpersonalre-
lationsamongMexicanundocumentedimmigrants,thereis a significanttrend
in thatdirection.This egalitarianismis indicatedby the emergenceof a more
egalitarian household division of labor and by shared decision-making
power.Womenstill have less power thanmen, but they generallyenjoy more
than they previously did in Mexico. The stereotypical image of machismo
in Mexican immigrant families is contradictedby the daily practices of
families discussed in this article. With the diminutionof patriarchalgender
relations, women gain power and autonomy,and men lose some of their
authorityand privilege. These gains and losses are reflectedin the women's
near-unanimouspreferenceforpermanentsettlementin the UnitedStatesand
in men's desire for returnmigration-a finding that echoes Pessar's(1986)
data on Dominicans in New YorkCity. Men's desire to returnto Mexico is
also rootedin theirloss of publicstatusonce in the United States,wheretheir
class position,racial-ethniccategory,andoften legal statusfurthererodetheir
ability to exert patriarchalprivileges. Patriarchalauthorityis not entirely
undermined,but the legitimacy of men's unchallengeddominationin the
family diminishesthroughprocesses inducedby family stage migration.
NOTES
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