WOMEN AND LABOR IN MEXICO IN TIMES OF NEO-LIBERALISM

WOMEN AND LABOR IN MEXICO IN TIMES OF NEO-LIBERALISM


Presented by: Organizer, Writer, Activist from Cuernavaca, Mexico-- Irene Ortiz


Brown Bag Discussion

Friday Novemeber 17th, 2006

12:00 - 1:00 p.m. (noon)

@ the Latin American and Iberian Institute (LAII)

801 Yale NE / 505-277-2961


Free Refreshments!!!

Discussion about the politics of women in labor, the transformation of the cultural patters on the family and the impact on the quality of life of these women.

Irene's brief biography:

Feminist involved in the movement at the continental level but dedicated to work with women of the poor classes. Irene lives in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In 1975 she integrated herself in the editorial Project of the periodical Maria, Liberación del Pueblo, a bimonthly publication by and for women of the poor neighborhoods in the state of Morelos. For five years she directed the publication of the periodical, participating directly in the development of groups of women readers of the same, beginning circles of literacy, reading and writing.

In 1980, she founded the first shelter for women domestic workers in the city of Cuernavaca, with the desire to empower women by means of workshops of education in labor rights, to place them in jobs that improved their work conditions and human conditions, from women living in shelters to women from this sector with problems of violence, loss of work and day care for their small children.

In 1987, Irene founded in Mexico City Colectivo Atabal, another project directed also at women in domestic service. The objective is the defense of the sector through promotion of their labor rights and valuing their services, through mass media, an employment service, workshops on self-esteem and introduction to the making of contracts in just conditions. In 1998, Irene became director of the Colectivo Atabal and dedicated herself to involving women from academia, communications and legislatures, functionaries of the local and federal government, so that they might aid in the incorporation of these workers into labor legislation and social policy.

Irene has written articles from the perspective of gender in the daily newspaper La Jornada, the review Fem, and other media, including the journal NACLA, (North American Congress on Latin America), edited in New York. She is co-author of the book, “Asi es Pues”, results of a socioeconomic study on the domestic workers, and editor of the book “¿Trabajo Domestico, Ayer, Hoy y Siempre?” She has participated as a
presenter on gender themes in diverse forums, also before students from the US and Canada from the programs of Centro de Educacion Mundial (based in Minneapolis at Augsburg College, a center in Cuernavaca), the Cuernavaca Center for Dialogue on Development, as well as Spanish schools.