Women & Change Chapter 9 & 10

Chapter nine titles of “Styles, Strategies, and Issues of Women Leader at the Border” by Irasema Coronado places its focus upon the types of activist roles that women have played that live or work along Mexico’s northern border, also Coronado explores the reasoning/motivation for women to become activists in their communities by three reason such as their personal function within government and political structure, the creation of civil associations and their ability to work independently.
For these women who are activists it is said that they become activists because of “…pain, anger, and fear” which as been the driving force to them. There are different kinds of motivations for activism. Pain, anger, and fear based activism, need based activism, spiritual/religious, work based, and outsourced workers are some and have been motivations for these women in certain situations. I thought that is was interesting that socio-economic status says how much these women can do as activists. For some of the women who are middle-class they are able to do more such as have their own transportation to go places, and have access to the telephone and computer/internet access. Women who are lower income have to depend on public transportation which increases the time for their daily mobility, and these women also rely on public places like internet cafes to check their internet, and pay phones to make phone calls. For women who are considered wealthy they have “their own private resources to finance and create their own AC’s because they have the financial resources and also are able to garner more resources to create an infrastructure for services delivery” (156).
The point was brought up that class difference is almost a determining factor for how activists interact with each other. It seems that this may give the idea that because of class difference these women do not ever really interact with each other. Also, these women are all fighting different battles. There is no way that women who are wealthy are fighting for the same rights as women who are lower income. However, they may fight for right that are similar like the whole patriarchal control. What do you think that these women are fighting for? Do you believe that it is the same thing?

Chapter ten was titled “Border Women’s NGO’s and Politcal Participation in Baja California” by Silvia Lopez Estrada which gives the reader a critical review of women and their political participation within the non-governmental organizations (NGO’S). For these women they are in NGO’s they are looking for a social change in their own area, they consider themselves to be advocates, but for most in these groups the main item on the agenda seems to be about women taking hold of their reproductive health and domestic violence. The question seems to be for these women in NGO’s is how effective are their efforts? What kind of problems do they run into? It seems that this chapter portrays these women as being the ones who make serious change but I know that change doesn’t come overnight so how long and how much effort do these women have to make in order for change to happen? Just a few thoughts

Women & Change Chapter 8

This chapter titled “Mexican Women’s Activism in New Mexico Colonias” by Rebecca Dolhinow accounted for the project of interviews that she did in Colonias along the border of New Mexico. The communities were Los Montes, Recuerdos and Valle de Vacas. In this chapter probably the most interesting topic was of gender roles in the households of Colonias. These women speak of how men are only there for protection, discipline, to financially provide for the family and that is it. If he chooses to do anything else when he comes home for work, that is up to him and is “recreational”. For the women who want to be activists there are challenges and struggles that come along due to gender relations in the home. It because of their specific roles in the home, women are supposed to be the ones who take care of the home and the children. The role of women is to take care of everything else so if she doesn’t everything can fall apart. It is said that “mothers make sure their families are fed and dressed and ready for another day” (132). I think that this ideology goes beyond the Colonia communities, but also can even be seen in American culture. Men traditionally known as the breadwinners, and even some couples adhere to those 1950’s traditional views were the husband brings home the bacon, and the wife waits for him to bring it home so that she can cook it and hand him a beer after his long day. Yes there are “Mr. Mom’s” the men who are stay-at-home dad’s but those are not really chosen situations. These situations may come up when a father is laid off, or the mother may make more money the husband. I am saying that fathers could choose to do so, but it not often times the case. I wonder when as a global society we will break from this typical family structuring (minus alternative families of single parents, same-sex partnerships etc.)