A Course in Feminism.

• Author: LIGHT, JULIE
• Position: Working women in Mexico - Brief Article

Tijuana

Many women working in Mexican assembly plants are afraid they will be fired if they speak out. But now they have a place to go. It's La Casa de la Mujer, Grupo Factor X, based in Tijuana.

Factor X mixes labor organizing with consciousness raising. It gives workers a crash course in globalization and feminism. In fourteen sessions, students analyze why wages have stayed stagnant on the border and why work in many other Mexican towns has dried up. They look at why the goods assembled in Mexico for pennies are sold in the United States for much more. And the promotoras, or organizers, discuss the discrimination women experience on the job.

In addition to low wages--the average in Tijuana is $50 for a forty-hour workweek--women often cite verbal abuse from supervisors, sexual harassment, pregnancy testing as a condition of employment, and workplace...