. . . . . . . . "Maquiladoras, women's work, and unemployment in northern Mexico"@en . "Maquiladoras, women's work, and unemployment in northern Mexico" . . . "Although Mexico's Border Industrialization Program (BIP) was formulated to relieve unemployment in northern cities, critics claim that it has not served this end. The main reason for this failure, many maintain, is that unemployment in the North, as in the nation as a whole, is a male problem. Yet, women constitute the bulk of the BIP labor force. This paper employs aggregate data on men's and women's labor force participation to demonstrate that this claim is based on several inaccurate assumptions. Average unemployment rates for the Northern region, as for the nation as a whole, are higher among women than men of comparable ages. Joblessness is especially pronounced among younger women, that sector of the labor force from which the majority of BIP workers are recruited. The program does not appear to have enhanced women's labor market situation relative to men's; rather, the same conditions which weaken women's employment status in other parts of Mexico also operate in the North, despite any job opportunities the program might offer. This essay draws upon propositions from Marxist-feminist theory to interpret these empirical trends." . . . . . . . .