Ciudad Juarez is located a few minutes away from El Paso, Texas, across the Mexican-American border. As a result of the implementation of the Border Industrialization Program (BIP) since 1965 there are currently in that city more than one hundred assembly plants, or maquiladoras, which operate as direct subsidiaries or subcontracted firms of multi‐ national corporations. More than half of the total number of maquiladoras in Ciudad Juarez is of the electric/electronic kind, while the rest are by and large dedicated to the assembly of apparel, with a small number involved in the manufacture of toys, asbestos yarn and other miscellaneous products (Bowden, 1998).
While all maquiladoras employ an overwhelming majority of women in direct production, significant differences among them surface when those employed in the electric/electronic industry are compared with those working in apparel manufacturing. The former are in general younger and have a higher average level of schooling than the latter. They are predominantly single and tend to contribute more than half of their weekly earnings to their families or orientation (i.e., parents and siblings with whom the majority live). They are an urban population whose members have grown up and been educated in Ciudad Juarez.
By contrast, women working in the apparel industry tend to be older and less educated. A large number of them have lived in Ciudad Juarez five or less years, a finding that probably indicates the presence of a greater number of recent migrants from the interior of Mexico in this group. One out of every three women in the Ciudad Juarez apparel industry provides the only means of support for their family. More often than not, these women support their own children rather than parents or siblings...............
