Linkages Household and Workplace Dominican Women - Pessar

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The Linkage between the Household and Workplace of Dominican Women in the U.S.Author(s): Patricia R. PessarSource: International Migration Review, Vol. 18, No. 4, Special Issue: Women in Migration(Winter, 1984), pp. 1188-1211Published by: The Center for Migration Studies of New York, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2546078.

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The Linkage Between the Householdand Workplace of Dominican Womenin the U.S.

Patricia R. PessarGeorgetownUniversityCenter or Immigration olicyand RefugeeAssistance

This article explores the interdependence between the household andworkplace in the lives of Dominican, immigrant women. Ethnographicresearch documents that while women's participation in wage work con?tributes to an improvement in domestic social relations, these householdlevel changes do not in turn stimulate modifications in female workers'consciousness and demands for improved working conditions. Paradox?ically, the beliefs about immigration and work which are rooted in thefamily, and the immigration goals that are realized through householdcooperation, militate against working class identification and organizedresistance in the workplace.

In contrast to earlier functionalist claims about the conflicting values and rolesfor women of family and work (Parson and Bales 1956), contemporary ana?lysts insist that the household and workplace are interdependent spheres ofideological, social, and material production. One component of the house?hold-workplace link consists of the subsidy to employers that the nonremuner-ated domestic work of women provides for the daily maintenance and gener?ational replication of workers {cf Fox 1980; Barrett 1980). A more positiveoutcome for women of the household-workplace connection is the improve?ment in status and worth within the home that is often a by-product of wom?en's waged employment (Oakley 1981; Abadan-Urat 1977; Pessar 1984a,1984b). Turning to the values and social relations women carry to the work?place from the household, we find that their skills in building social networksand organizing collective tasks within and between households may prove tobe sources for creating solidarity among workers (Kessler-Harris 1981; Tax1980). As one ethnographer found in her study of a walkout by ward secre?taries in a large southern hospital, working class family values can be trans?formed within the workplace into concrete collective actions for improvementsin wages and work options {cf Sacks n.d.).1188 IMR Volume xviii No. 4

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Household and Workplace Linkages 1189In this study of Dominican immigrant workers it is argued that an inter-

dependency of spheres does not necessarily imply symmetry in the outcomesof the exchange between household and workplace. While Dominican immi?grant women's participation in waged work contributes to an improvement indomestic social relations and ideology for women, these household levelchanges do not in turn stimulate modifications in female workers' conscious?ness and demands for improved conditions in the workplace.1

The first section of this article will examine how, and in which domainsDominican immigrant women's status in the household improves as a conse?quence of waged employment. The second section will explore why and howwomen's ideological and social rootedness in households promotes a middle-class identity and orientation to work which is not conducive to collectivestruggles to improve working conditions. The article concludes with a consid?eration of the inconsistency between the ideology and aspirations of immi?grant households for a middle class standard of living on the one hand, andthe future employment opportunities for their children, on the other. It issuggested that this situation may be resolved by Dominicans bringing familyideology and loyalty to the service of collective action aimed at improving theconditions in secondary sector industries where both they and their childrenare likely to be working in the future.

The data upon which this article is based comes largely from fieldworkconducted in the United States and the Dominican Republic during the pe?riod 1980-1983. The generalizations reached about immigrants' experiencesin the United States are based on structured interviews with informants, aswell as casual conversations and participant observation in households, work?places, and social gatherings over a two year period. Two principal groupsform the basis formuch of the data and analysis presented below: members of55 immigrant households who provided information over a year's period ontopics such as social networks, decision-making, income generation, controlover budgeting, and beliefs about sex roles; and 16 female garment workerswho were queried about the above topics as well as the nature of their work?place and beliefs about their roles as workers. These informants were obtainedthrough various means. They include previous contact with an individual orfamily member in the Dominican Republic and introductions by other in-

'Estimates f thetotalnumber fDominicans esidingnthe UnitedStates s residentliensand as undocumentedmmigrantsangefrom 00,000 o800,000.The majority aveemigratedduring he asttwodecades ndapproximately0% currentlyeside ntheNew YorkMetropoli?tan area. According o Douglas Gurak's 1981probabilityurvey f Dominicans iving n theborough fQueens and thenorthern alf fManhattan, 0.4% oftheDominicanpopulationsfemale.Forthisfemale opulation heaverage ge of arrivalwas 22.2 and themedianyears feducations8.0.



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1190 International Migration Reviewformants and community leaders.2

In selecting these households and informants, some diversity was soughtto explore how the immigrant experience might be differentially affected byvariables such as class background, time of arrival, age, marital status, house?hold composition, and work history. In this study, to account for women'scommon and contrasting experiences in the household and workplace, I haveconcentrated on the elements of class identification, marital status, householdorganization, and labor force participation.WOMEN'S IMPROVED STATUS IN THE HOUSEHOLDObservers of the Dominican family have distinguished two basic forms of do?mestic organization, the single mate and multiple mate pattern. The two arebuttressed by different ideologies, are based on contrasting types of unions,and involve differentpatterns of post-marital residence, household composi?tion, authority, and division of labor in domestic activities3 {cf Brown 1972;Ferran 1974; Instituto Dominicano de Estudios Aplicados 1975; Gonzalez 1971,1976; Tancer 1973; Pessar 1982).

For the purposes of this article, it is the contrasting patterns of authorityfound within these two forms of domestic organization that merit attention.In the single mate household, authority resides largely with the senior male;in the multiple mate unit, women tend to command authority {cf Brown 1972;Ferran 1974). A third model for domestic authority which will be examinedbelow, has emerged in many Dominican immigrant households. There hasbeen a movement away from the hegemony of one sex over decision-makingand control over domestic resources to a more egalitarian division of labor.In as much as the single mate form predominates among the middle strataof the Dominican population ? the sector from which the majority of the Do?minican immigrants originates ? most immigrant households have experi?enced a movement away from patriarchal relations and values toward greater

egalitarianism. These changes are most evident in three areas: belief abouthousehold authority, the allocation of household members to housework tasks,and budgetary control.2Thisresearchwasfunded ythe National nstitutes fHealth,theNational cienceFounda?tion, nd New YorkUniversity'sewYorkResearch rogramn nter-Americanffairs. wouldliketo acknowledgehework fmyresearchssistant, atherine enamou,whocontributedothedesign ndadministeringf hegarment orkeruestionnaire.3Themultiplematepatternhouldnotbe confused ith emale-headedouseholds. ependingupon tsorigine.g. widowhood ersus he emporarybsence f malecompanion) ndthewayin which hedomestic nit s organized o meet ts socialreproductionequirements,female-headedhouseholdmaybe classifieds singlemateormultiplemate.



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Household and Workplace Linkages 1191For most Dominicans the status of household head is equated with the

concept of defending the household (quien defiendea casd). This defense isconceived of in largely material terms. As women demonstrate their capacityto share this responsibility with men, so they begin to expect partnership ashead ofthe household. Thus, in response to my question, who is the householdhead now, and who was the head previous to your emigration, the majority ofthe informants interviewed (70%) echoed the words of the following woman:

We both are the heads. If both husband and wife are earning salariesthen they should equally rule in the household. In the Dominican Re?public it is always the husband who gives the orders in the household(manda lo de la casd). But here when the two are working, the woman feelsherself the equal of the man in ruling the home (se sientecapacitada demandarigual al hombre).

The problem of the double burden is one area in which immigrant womenreport significant modifications in men's willingness to entertain change.Women complain to their husbands that, like them, they are generating anincome by laboring outside the home. However, they are being treated un?justly when they are forced to extend their work day by toiling in the homeafter work and on weekends. The compromise reached by the majority ofthe women I have interviewed involves the husband's minor participation inhousework. The degree of participation usually varies in accordance with thedomestic cycle of the household and its gender composition. The man's con?tribution increases when the children are young and decreases once daughtersare old enough to help their mothers. The most commonly shared domestictasks are cooking and weekly shopping.Women tend to view their husband's help in housework as a moral victory.That is, by his minor assistance the husband recognizes the value of the wom?an's domestic activities and acknowledges her sacrifices for the household.Women realize, as do their husbands, that the latter do not, and perhapsshould not provide an equal contribution to household maintenance. The ma?jority of the women I have interviewed expressed the belief that a man's equalparticipation in all phases of housework is emasculating. As confirming evi?dence , I have been told of women who insisted that their sons and daughtersshare equally in household chores, only to discover later that their sons havebecome homosexuals.These latter beliefs emanate from a conceptual framework of the place ofgender in the social universe. This cultural model ascribes men by nature tothe public sphere and women to the domestic sphere . This view was re?peatedly expressed by informants in their responses to the following question:In some households the woman goes out and works for wages and the man



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1192 International Migration Reviewremains behind and assumes the childcare and housekeeping responsibilities.Do you think this is right, and do you think the man can do as good a job asa woman? The following quote is representative:

I know of such cases where the man assumes the housekeeping andchildcare responsibilities. But, I don't believe a man can be as good as awoman; she is made for the home and the man is made to work.Economic necessity has often required Dominican immigrant women atleast temporarily to leave the domestic sphere forpart of the day. This practicehas in turn tempered the patriarchal dichotomy concerning men's and wom?en's natural place in the world. The workplace has become an ideological re?source drawn upon by women to redefine and renegotiate certain features ofthe sexual division of labor within the household. It is for this reason that I

believe it is appropriate to claim that for many working immigrant women,the workplace mediates between the public sphere and the domestic sphere .This new orientation to the workplace challenges the more traditional ascrip?tion of men to the public workplace and women to the private household.Work heightens women's self-esteem as wives and mothers, affords them anincome to actualize these roles more fully,and provides them with heightenedleverage to participate as equals to men in household decision-making.This finding adds to the growing body of literature on women, work, andthe household that challenges earlier functionalist dichotomies between thefamily and workplace. For example, Parsons and Bales (1956) promulgatedthe belief that women would experience profound role conflicts if they addedthe status of worker to their primary statuses as housewife and mother. Theoverly facile, not to say ideologically rooted nature of such thinking, is attestedto by the following. The very same woman who claimed it was in the natureof the woman to do housework and for the man to labor outside of the home,also stated that the aspect of her life that most satisfied her was her role, as aworker, because I can buy things for my daughter that I could not afford inthe Dominican Republic .Having made the point that many Dominican women utilize their accessto the workplace and to wages to attain greater equality with their husbandsin the home and to provide their children with more benefits, I want to stressthat employment has not provided women with a new status as working womenthat challenges or subordinates their primary identities as wives and mothers.

To the contrary, in many cases work has reinforced these statuses because ithas allowed women to redefine their roles as wives and mothers in a moresatisfying manner than existed prior to their employment and residence in theUnited States.



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Household and Workplace Linkages 1193The other domain in which renegotiation and change has occurred is inhousehold budgeting. As table 1 shows, for the 55 migrant households for

which I have budgetary data, the dominant mode of control prior to emigra?tion was as follows: 10 were characterized by the traditional, patriarchal form;28 operated with the household allowance pattern; and 17 pooled householdincome. Of this last group, 15 of the domestic units were female-headed. In16 of the 38 households where men controlled the household revenue, women,either as wives or daughters, contributed income on a regular or semi-regularbasis. Among the units characterized by the household allowance mode, thewoman's income was most commonly directed toward household, rather thanpersonal items of consumption. Women tended to specialize in luxury itemsrather than staples. Both objectively and symbolically, the direction of thesewomen's savings to nonessential prestige items reinforced the image of theman as the breadwinner and the woman, at best, as the bestower of modernstatus goods, and at worst, as the purchaser of tonterias(frivolities).There has been a profound change in budgetary allocation for Dominicanhouseholds residing in the United States. The households in which the 55informants are currently found are characterized by the following forms ofbudgetary control: 2 follow the traditional pattern; in 15 households, whichare characterized for the most part by the wife's non-employment or partici?pation in industrial homework, the women receive a household allowance.Thirty-eight households pool their income, and of these domestic units, 20 arenuclear and 18 are female-headed (owing either to the absence of a senior maleor to his irregular and limited financial contributions to the household as

TABLE 1Dominant Mode of Budgetary Control in the Dominican Republic Priorto Emigration and in Dominican Immigrant Households in New York.Mode ofBudgetaryControl

Prior toMigration SubsequenttoMigrationTraditionalPatriarchal orm 10 2HouseholdAllowance 28 15Pooled Income 17 38(n) 55 55



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1194 International Migration Reviewmeasured against those of the senior woman).

The predominant mode of budgetary control, income pooling within nu?clear households, brings women advantages unknown in the three pre-migra-tion patterns. First, responsibility for meeting the basic reproduction costs ofthe domestic group are distributed among members, regardless of gender,thus mitigating the invidious comparison between essential male contribu?tions and supplementary female inputs. Second, according to informants,the greater participation by men in decision-making and in developing strat?egies for stretching the household budget and managing irregularities in in?come flow has led them to appreciate more fully the experience and skillswomen bring to these tasks.Women recognize that strides have been made in the United States with

regard to women's control over the fruits of their labor. In a few cases womenhave had to struggle with husbands and fathers to acquire this right. Of the55 women in this sample, 18 were divorced or separated from a partner whilein the United States. Fourteen cited the right to control their income moreequitably as one of the primary factors leading to the disbanding of the union.Nonetheless, in most cases the senior male adapted relatively easily to a moreegalitarian mode of budgeting. Several factors are important contributors tothis change. The first will be discussed in greater detail below. It involves theideology of emigration as a shared household experience. This collective ori?entation to relocation appears to lessen social distance and power inequitiesalong gender and generational lines. Second, both Dominican women andmen have expressed a desire to emulate what they believe is a more modernand less conflictual American pattern of sharing household decision-makingbetween men and women. While these two social processes facilitated theadoption of a more egalitarian form of household budgeting, there was anadditional material element operating. This became evident in those caseswhen women significantly reduced their level of contribution to the householdbudget. Whether this change occurred in the United States or upon return tothe Dominican Republic, the man commonly asserted his dominance by al?locating a household allowance to his wife and reducing her authority overbudgetary decisions.

We have noted how women's amplified role in production has advancedtheir status in the domestic sphere and increased their sense of self-esteem.When the household-workplace equation is reversed to examine whether theexperience of acquiring greater equity with men in the home has spurredwomen to struggle in the workplace to reduce the power differential betweenworkers and owners, we find no supporting evidence. To the contrary, wom?en's experiences in immigrant households help to create a highly individual?istic, largely satisfied group of workers.



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Household and Workplace Linkages 1195

DOMINICAN WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

Labor force participation is high among Dominican women in the UnitedStates. According to the Hispanic Settlement in New York City Survey, 91.5percent of Dominican women had worked for pay at some time since theiremigration, with 49.7 percent currently in the labor force (employed or seek?ing employment). Of these women, 61 percent were engaged in manufactur?ing; 42 percent were employed in the garment industry, making it the singlelargest employer of Dominican women (Gurak and Kritz 1982:5).

In-depth interviews were held with sixteen female apparel workers to ex?amine whether and how household ideology and organization affect women'sperceptions of and orientation to work and themselves as workers. The generalcharacteristics of the informants are presented in tables 2A and 2B. Amongthe topics addressed in the questionnaire were current workplace organiza?tion, work history, class identification, knowledge about and attitudes towardthe shop, union, and the apparel industry, household composition, and pre-and post-emigration control over and participation in domestic activities.

The informants' work experiences have been conditioned by, as well astypify, he difficulties confronting the New York garment industry. For exam?ple, 7 of the 16 women had been laid-off for at least a week one or more timesover the past year. This job instability is a by-product of irregularities in pro?duction?a trend that has intensified as the New York apparel industry hasassumed the role of a spot market . That is, over the last two decades morestable, standardized production within the industry has moved from theNortheast to the Southern United States and abroad. New York has come tospecialize in the unstable components of demand. These components include:1) fashion-sensitive product lines, where demand fluctuates seasonally as wellas in accordance with vagaries in consumer demand; and 2) re-orders ofstandardized lines which cannot be managed by larger, more routinized man?ufacturers (cf Abeles etal 1983; Waldinger 1984).

Within the apparel industry job experience is not appreciably rewardedwith increases in wages or occupational mobility. While in 1950 the averagehourly earnings of workers in all manufacturing and apparel in New York was$1.57 and $1.67 respectively (i.e. apparel workers' earnings were 106.4 percentof all manufacturing workers), by 1981 the comparative wage was $6.90 and$5.87 (i.e. apparel workers' earnings were 85.1 percent of all manufacturingworkers (Abeles etal.).



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1196 International Migration Review

TABLE 2AGeneral characteristics of Informants, Dominican GarmentWorkers in the New York Metropolitan Area.

Identification(Pseudonyms) Age Marital and Household Situation Education1. Zelda 42 Divorced; liveswith on (23) 12years2. Florida 40 Divorced; lives with4 children19, 11years15, 9, 6)3. Eva 24 Separated; lives with2 children 13 years(3^,6 months) nd divorced ister4. Carmen 17 Divorced; lives withgrandmother; 12 yearsaunt; and aunt's five hildren11, 9,8, 5, 3)5. Marilu 21 Single; boarder n an apartment 0 (self-educated)6. Rosa 62 Married; lives withhusband; 2 5 yearschildren26, 24); and a niece7. Susana 56 Widow; lives withdaughter 22) 2 years8. Marcela 48 Married; lives withhusband and 8 yearschildren23, 18)9. Ivalise 44 Married; lives withhusband and 3 yearsdaughter 24)10. Gertrudes 36 Married; liveswithhusband and 2 6 yearschildren13,4)11. Anita 25 Single; lives withmother 12years12. Juana 23 Single; lives withboyfriend 11years13. Marina 22 Separated; lives with2 children7,3) 12 years14. Maria 32 Married; lives withhusband; 5 yearscomadre, nd comadre'sdaughter15. Lupita 42 Married; lives with4 children19, 8 years10, 9, 22 months)16. Esperanza 39 Divorced; lives with6 children21, 3 years19, 18, 14, 11, 8) and 1 grandchild



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Household and Workplace Linkages 1197The average hourly wage of $4.36 (gross) earned by the 16 informants in1982 was significantly lower than the New York figure.4 It should be noted

that most of the informants worked at piece rates rather than at a fixed hourlyrate. One might expect that with experience such workers' earnings wouldsignificantly increase. A common strategy employed by owners to control suchsalary hikes is to augment piece rate quotas to ensure that increases in pro?ductivity do not lead to appreciably higher wages for individual workers.The work histories of the women demonstrate little or no job mobilitywithin the industry. Most of the women entered as floorworkers and rose tomachine operator in one or two years' time. However, for all save the samplemaker, Marcela, job mobility has stopped at this juncture. The organizationof most garment shops poses a severely limiting factor for mobility. This isdue both to gender stereotyping which excludes women from positions such ascutter and pleater and to the relatively shallow division of labor in most shopswhich results in very few paths for advancement.It is within such insecure, dead-end spheres of production that social ana?lysts have often predicted the emergence of working class consciousness andsolidarity (cf Edwards et al. 1975). This has not been the case for the Domin?ican garment workers interviewed in this study.The Middle Class Identity of the Dominican InformantsWhile objectively the jobs held by the Dominican garment workers wouldplace them in the ranks of the working class, as table 3 shows, the majority ofthese women identify themselves as middle class (66.5%).Several questions were included in the questionnaire to determine whetherthe informants brought an individualistic or collective orientation to issuessuch as social advancement and employment. Two representative examplesare provided below.

When asked to choose the best and most effectivemeans for Hispanics toprogress, the informants answered as follows (see table 4):We find an overwhelming emphasis upon education, as a vehicle for indi?vidual mobility rather than support of more broad-based, popular institu?tions. Belief and action are congruent. All of the women with children in theirlate teens and 20s had at least one child attending college part-time or full-time. None of the women participated in political associations. Only one wasa member of a social club and its orientation was recreational. The clear re?jection of the legislative process reflects both the belief that as Dominicansthey could expect no political assistance from the U.S. government and a

4Thisdifferences attributable,n argepart, o the nclusionn the atter alculation fmen'swageswhich end o be significantlyigherhanwomen's.



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TABLE 2BGeneral Characteristics of Dominican Informants

Yearsin U.S. Last Residencein D.R. Occupation(D.R.) Occupation(U.S.)NetEarWee

1. 15 yrs2. 3 yrs3. 3 yrs4. 1 yr

5. 8 yrs

6. 17yrs

7. 20 yrs

San Francisco(Rural)Santo Domingo(Urban)SantoDomingo(Urban)SantoDomingo(Urban)La Romana(Urban)

Santiago(Urban)Santiago(Urban)

Housewife

Nurse

Student

Student

Student

SewingMachineOperatorSewingMachineOperator

SewingMachineOperatorSewingMachineOperatorSewingMachineOperatorPresser nSweatshop

SewingMachineOperator(laid-off)SewingMachineOperator(Laid-off)SewingMachineOperator

$140

$170

$125

$ 55

$100

$165

$177



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8. 14yrs9. 16yrs

10. 15yrs11. lyr12. 1yr13. 7 yrs14. 1 yr15. 14yrs

16. 6 yrs

SanJuandeMaguana(Rural)JuancalitoAbajo (Rural)JuancalitoArriba Rural)Santiago(Urban)Santiago(Urban)Valverde(Urban)SantoDomingoSavana Verde

SanJosedelas Matas(Rural)

Housewife

Housewife

HouseworkinparentalhomeSewingMachineOperatorSaleswomanNurse'sAideSewingMachineOperatorNurse'sAide

Domestic

SampleMakerSewingMachineOperatorSewingMachineOperatorSewingMachineOperatorFloorworker(Laid-off)Homeworkerand WelfareRecipientSewingMachineOperatorSewingMachineOperator(Laid-off)Floorworker

$203.

$140

$129

$129

$111$100(sew$120

$150

$130



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1200 International Migration ReviewTABLE 3Class Identification of Dominican Garment Workers in the New York

Metropolitan Area

Identification(Pseudonyms)

Perceptionof ClassPrior toEmigration

Perceptionof ClassPositionin U.S.AnticipatedClass PositionUpon ReturntoD.R.

1. Zelda2. Florida3. Eva4. Carmen5. Marilu6. Rosa7. Susana8. Marcela9. Ivalise10.Gertrudes11. Anita12.Juana

13.Marina14.Maria15.Lupita16.Esperanza

Middle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassWorkingClassPoorMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle Class

Middle ClassMiddle ClassWorkingClassWorkingClassPoorMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassPoor

These questionsunansweredbecause informantDominican RepublicMiddle Class PoorPoor Poor

Middle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassPoor+Middle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle ClassMiddle Class(N.A. Does notanticipatereturn)returned otheMiddle ClassPoor

more general lack of confidence in politics. One woman commented, It isn'ta good thing getting involved in politics (No estd bien meterse npolitico). An?other claimed, an individual comes to no good involving him or herself inpolitics (La persona se va abajo con la politico). The informants' strong belief inthe work ethic is reflected here in the claim by 8 women that welfare is theleast effectivemeans for Hispanics to progess.Consistent with a middle class ideology, the women's explanation for un?deremployment in the garment industry reflected a situational rather than astructural approach to job supply. If the informant claimed that since arrivingin the United States, it has become increasingly difficult for Dominicans tofind work in the garment industry, she was queried, who is the most and least



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Household and Workplace Linkages 1201TABLE 4

Preference for Mechanisms for Hispanic Progress in the U.S.The Most EffectiveLegislativeprocess 0Collective ctionof theHispanic community 0Unions 0Education 15Other 1*(n) 16* Tohave a goal and faith n oneselfThe Least EffectiveLegislativeprocess 8Collective ctionof theHispanic community 0Unions 0Education 0Other 8**(n) 16

Welfare

responsible for this difficulty:1. The owners, because they close their factories here and move to othersites in the U.S. or abroad;2. The U.S. government for not having placed quotas upon importedproducts;3. The unions, because they inflate the salaries forcing factories to closeor move their operations to another site where the salaries are lower;4. The large number of legal and undocumented immigrants who com?pete for a diminishing number of obs.

As table 5 reveals the majority of the informants perceived the problem ofunemployment and underemployment in neoclassical terms of supply and de?mand. There were too many immigrants competing for a limited number of



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1202 International Migration ReviewTABLE 5Beliefs About the Origin of Unemployment and Underemployment in the

Garment IndustryAgentsdeemedmostresponsibleOwners 1U.S. government 3Unions 2Migrants 7N.A. 3(n) 16

Agentsdeemed leastresponsibleOwners 9U.S. government 0Unions 1Migrants 3N.A. 3(n) 16

jobs. Several of the women cited the United States government's failure toimpose quotas on imports as a factor promoting a diminishing job supply. Thisis a position fostered by labor unions {cf Chaikin 1976). At its root, it pitsmore exploited foreign workers against less exploited domestic workers. Onlyone informant, Esperanza, perceived the problem as one between the conflict?ing interests of owners and workers. Not surprisingly, she is the only womanwho consistently identified herself in the Dominican Republic and UnitedStates as working class, using such terms as we and they when speaking offellow workers and employers.If one were to analyze fully the lack of working class identification and theindividualistic orientation to social issues characterizing most of the inform?ants' responses to the above mentioned questions and others, it would be nec?essary to include several arenas in which the meanings of work and attitudestoward the workplace are forged. Among these are the work setting, with itstechnology and organization of production {cf Edwards 1979, Zimbalist 1980)



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Household and Workplace Linkages 1203and unions and political associations that have attempted to organize andmobilize Dominicans (cf. Benamou 1984; NACLA 1977; Georges 1984). Spaceprecludes such an in-depth analysis. Nonetheless, in focussing upon thehousehold, we find one highly important source for the beliefs and orienta?tions described above.

The Construction of Work Within the Immigrant HouseholdImmigration is foremost a household initiative. From an analytical perspec?tive, it may be viewed as a strategy whereby household members seek to es?tablish a fit between the material and social resources at the group's disposal(e.g. land, capital, labor), the consumption needs of its members (informed byideologies of standard of living), and the alternatives for productive activity.For the lower middle class, the social strata to which the majority of Domini?can emigrants belonged, this dynamic fit became harder to maintain as con?sumption needs outpaced income and opportunities for supplementing house?hold funds (see, table 6).

TABLE 6Last Occupation Held byImmigrants Prior to MigrationOccupation Males (%) Females %)No OccupationProfessionalWorkersManagers,Proprietors, fficialsClericalWorkersSales WorkersDomestic ServicesOtherServiceWorkersFarmers,FarmLaborers,Miners,etc.Skilled,Blue-Collar,orCraftWorkersSemi-SkilledOperativeUnskilledNon-FarmLaborersUnknown

53 (23.8)20(9)12 (5.4)24(10.8)12(5.4)024(10.8)14(6.3)17(7.6)30(13.5)5(2.2)12(5.4)

198 (58.8)29 (8.6)8 (2.4)28 (8.3)5(1.5)9(2.7)5(2.7)03 (.9)32(9.5)9(2.7)11 (3.3)(N) 223 337(Source: The Hispanic SettlementnN.Y.C Survey,1981)



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1204 International Migration ReviewA Dominican middle class emerged in the latter part of the Trujillo regime

{cf Cassa 1980; Bosch 1980). It became an increasingly important sector dur?ing the Balaguer presidency (1966-1978) owing to policies that encouragedmassive foreign investments, national industrialization based on import sub?stitution and the creation of a cadre of technocrats.

This program began to founder midway into the Balaguer period. At thistime commodity export prices generally worsened, while food and oil costsincreased, contributing to a tripling of the nation's trade deficit between 1972and 1976 (World Bank 1978:143). The country was no longer attracting largenumbers of investors. The domestic market was saturated, and plantationagriculture and mining were less profitable. By the mid 1970s the countryexperienced a net dollar outflow, between debt service payments and capitalrepatriations. And in the last years of the Balaguer regime, for every dollar ofnew foreign investment, $1.60 left as expatriated profits (NACLA 1983:12).Contradictions in Balaguer's economic model challenged the viability ofmiddle class households in several ways. The overall economic instability andlack ofproductivity threatened owners' profits in commercial enterprises; sala?ried workers faced possible dismissal or reduced opportunities for careermobility. Tremendous increases in the cost of living, e.g. 17.0 percent in 1973and 1974 and 21.3 percent in 1975, were experienced at the household level(Guiliano Cury, 1980: 250). Between 1969 and 1978, real wages dropped from$80 a month to $54 {Op cit 1983:9). While the earning power of this socialclass declined, there was a marked increase in the means of communicationthat encouraged people to objectify their status as members of the middleclass5 by consuming commodities ? often beyond their financial means.6International migration became a solution for this highly vulnerable group.They had the social contacts and discretionary income to facilitate this reset?tlement.

With this background material, we can return to the original question:Why haven't the work experiences ofmost of the informants promoted a work?ing class identification? I would suggest that the orientation to their status asworkers has been profoundly influenced by their motive for emigrating andlaboring in the United States. The goal is to buttress or attain a middle class

5For xample,between 961 nd 1976 henumber fDominicanradiostationsncreased rom36to 105, henumber f elevision tations rom to5 andthenumber fdailynewspapersrom5 to 7. n SantoDomingotherewere8 publicitygencies n 1966 while n 1978 he number adgrown o38 (Urena andFerreira 980:156, 50).6DependentevelopmenthroughoutheThirdWorld as nvolved he pening fnewmarketsand thecreation f newneedsthroughhe mportingf FirstWorld ommoditiesLipsett ndBendix1959,Urena and Ferreira 980).While hesehavebeen staples or ecadesfor hework?ingclass of advanced ndustrialocieties, hey re markers fmodernitynd mobility or hemajority f the nhabitants f ess developed ountries. his temporal nd spacial skewing faccesstovaluedcommodities enefits he mployersf mmigrant orkers.



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Household and Workplace Linkages 1205status for the household, as measured against Dominican standards.

Changes in the organization of immigrant households? the pooling of in?come and more egalitarian decision-making over budgeting?have assistedDominicans in attaining this end while residing in the United States. That is,

by tapping the collective fund of multiple wage earners, household membershave been able to purchase consumer goods and services that symbolize amiddle class standard of living. Let me turn to two research findings to sub?stantiate and elaborate upon this claim.First, the role that income pooling assumes in stretching the low wages ofindividual garment workers and allowing them to acquire durable consumer

goods is apparent when comparing the responses of Marilu (5), Marina (13),Lupita (15), and Esperanza (16) with those of Rosa (6), Marcela (8), Ivalise(9), and Gertrudes (10). The first group of women who consider themselvespoor reside in households with an average of 1.5 wage earners and a depend?ency ratio of 3:1. In contrast, among the second group, who claim to be mid?dle class, there are 2.5 wage earners and the dependency ratio is 1:1. Thedifferences in the consumer power between these two groups was apparent intheir diet, housing, furnishing, and use of leisure time. To take two extremeexamples, Esperanza's family of 8 resides in a one bedroom apartment andshare 3 beds, while Ivalise's garden apartment has a guest room, living room,and den.

Second, in other studies (Pessar 1984a, 1984b), I have shown how womenin income pooling, egalitarian households attempt to direct expenditures todurable, consumer goods which make life in the United States more comfort?able materially and socially. Not surprisingly, women in these householdsunanimously viewed their current class position as middle class. On the otherhand, women who worked and resided in households where they did not par?ticipate so fully in income allocation were more likely to classify themselves asworking class. What is striking is that this occurs in several households wherethe salaries are equal or higher than that found in income pooling households.The determining element appears to be the men's control over the allocationof income and their resistance to purchase consumer goods whose paymentmight delay the household's return to the Dominican Republic. Both researchfindings point to the fact that the behavior that informs many Dominicanimmigrants' conception of social class is the consumption of prestige goods.

Do these findings mean that for the majority of Dominicans in the UnitedStates there is little or no positive correlation between immigrants' experiencesin households and working class identification and struggle? The answer atpresent would appear to be affirmative. In the future, however, we may see asignificant change ifthe following prognosis proves correct.



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IMMIGRANT IDEOLOGY AND TRENDS IN THE U.S. ANDDOMINICAN LABOR MARKETS

There is an emerging contradiction between the ideology and aspirationsof immigrant households for a middle class standard of living, on one hand,and the potential employment opportunities for their children, on the other.While a middle class standard of living is possible for some immigrant house?holds, for others this goal is transferred to their children and is embodied intheir higher education. Referring back to the 16 garment workers, the extremeimportance ascribed to education accounts for the middle class identificationreported by Zelda (1) and Susana (7). While both have modest incomes andlive frugally, they each have university educated children in whose achieve?ments they strongly identify. For example, Zelda explained that one son wasgoing to be an historian and the other a philosopher. She then added, Anddo you know what I am going to be? I am going to be all of this, because littleby little I will be picking up something from each of them and from theirfriends. I will be listening and learning. Both women also indicated that theylooked forward to a comfortable retirement owing to the financial support oftheir educated children.While many Dominicans view their children's education as a primary ve?hicle for the family's social mobility, there are two factors militating againstthis goal. First, many of the parental generation intend their educated chil?dren to return to the Dominican Republic where they can apply their U.S.training. There is unfortunately little reason to believe that the Dominicaneconomy will develop sufficientlyto absorb the U.S. educated cohort. Theseyoung people join the increasingly large numbers of young Dominicans whoselabor force participation has been temporarily delayed through admission totechnical schools and universities whose numbers have expanded tremen?dously over this decade.7 In fact, one already encounters university educatedDominicans residing legally and illegally in the United States who have emi?grated due to lack of ob prospects. Their employment often does not reflectnor take advantage of the human capital these individuals bring to the UnitedStates. Second, many social scientists point to an increasingly profound bifur?cation in the U.S. labor market between highly skilled white collar jobs andlow skilled secondary sector jobs (O'Conner 1973; Sassen-Koob 1983). Ascompetition increases at the top of the employment hierarchy it is likely thatHispanics will sufferfrom both blatant discrimination and more subtle forms

7In1965 herewere nly2 Dominicanuniversities,y1976 henumber ad increased o 7 andmatriculation ad expandedfrom ,963to 58,907, hat s by approximately50% (Urena andFerreira 980:153).



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Household and Workplace Linkages 1207emanating from their lack of access to prestigious social networks. In short,the latest wave of immigrants may find that the social mobility enjoyed byearlier groups of second generation ethnics will be much more circumscribedfor them in the United States. In the light of these developments, we canconclude that unless structural changes occur in their country of origin or themost recent prognosis of the U.S. economy proves erroneous, the social mo?bility Dominicans anticipate may indeed prove illusory. An Hispanic lowerworking class may become a more or less permanent feature of the UnitedStates' political economy.8While caution must be exercised given the very small number of workerswho were interviewed, I believe that the findings and analysis presented abovedo suggest certain directions that might be pursued by labor and politicalorganizations which seek to promote working class solidarity and action amongimmigrant populations. Organizers often claim that women as a group areharder to win over than men. Nonetheless, women will probably prove morereceptive than men to the message that their daughters and sons may notprovide them with the prestige and security in old age that parents anticipate.This is the case, because gender ideology continues to root women's sense ofachievement and well-being to the household. If women are educated aboutlikely ethnic and gender discrimination that will eventuate in their children'srestricted mobility in a bifurcated U.S. economy, they may be more receptiveto struggling now collectively to improve conditions in these secondary sectorjobs.The importance of incorporating immigrant women into the union move?ment is underscored when we consider the changes already occuring in theindustries that recruit immigrants, ethnics, and women. We are already ob?serving the breakdown of vertically integrated, unionized shops in the appareland other manufacturing industries. These are being replaced by non-union?ized subcontracting shops with a small labor force (Bluestone and Harrison1982; Christopherson 1983). The ability of unions to organize such small,dispersed firms, an admittedly difficulttask, would be eased iforganizers couldrely upon the presence of individuals who are familiar with and positivelydisposed to unionization. If workers in these firms do not have available tothem the higher wages, greater job security, and other social benefits unionshave historically brought to laborers, it is likely that their economic vulnera?bility will be attributed by many to immutable characteristics of this work?force. That is, the probable lesser mobility of these immigrant workers and

8Unlike heparental eneration,he econdgeneration ill valuate heir onsumer ower ndlifestylegainstAmerican tandards. his pointof referencehoulddistinguishhemfrom hefirstwaveofDominican mmigrants hoexperienced middle lass standard f iving hatnative-born mericans ssociatewith heworkinglass.



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1208 International Migration Reviewtheir children, as compared to that of earlier European groups {cf Borjas n.d.)will be attributed to gender, race and national background rather than to thenew political-economic constraints facing the newest wave of immigrant labor.CONCLUSIONDrawing upon the case of Dominican, immigrant women, this article has ex?plored the interdependence between the household and workplace. We havenoted that wage employment has helped Dominican women to gain greaterequity in their households. On the other hand, it has been shown that a supplyof women workers who approach their jobs as satisfied individuals is a by?product of the changes in the organization of Dominican immigrant house?holds as well as their members' attitudes toward emigration. Nonetheless, thereare indications of a contradiction emerging between the immigrant householdideology and future opportunities for Dominican children. Its resolution mayyet transform individual female workers into women who conceive of theiridentity and future as tied to the fate of the larger domestic working class.

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abadan-Unat,N.1977 ImplicationsfMigration nEmancipationrPseudoemancipationfTurkishWomen ,Internationaligrationeview.11):31?58.Abeles,Schwartz, ackel andSilverblatt,nc.1983 TheChinatownarmenttudy. ewYork: LGWU.Barrett,M.1980 Women'sppressionoday. ondon: VersoEditions.Benamou,C.1984 La Aguja :LaborUnionParticipationmongHispanic mmigrantWomen ntheNewYorkGarment ndustry . ccasionalapers44) New YorkUniversity. enter forLatinAmerican ndCaribbeanStudies.Bluestone, . andB. Harrison1982 TheDeindustrializationfAmerica. ewYork:Basic Books.Borjas,G.n.d. The Impactof Assimilationn theEarningsof Immigrants: Reexamination f theEvidence .Unpublishedmanuscript, conomicsDepartment,UniversityfCalifornia,Santa Barbara.



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Bosch,J.1980 Composicidnocial ominicana.antoDomingo:EditoraAlfay Omega.Brown, .1975 Love UnitesThemandHunger eparates hem: Poor Women n theDominicanRepub?lic . In Toward nAnthropologyfWomen. ditedbyRayna Reiter.New York:MonthlyReviewPress.Cassa, R.1980 Modos eproduccion,losesociales, luchasoliticas.antoDomingo:EditoraAlfayOmega.Chaiken, .1976 The NeededRepeal of tem 807.00 fthe Tariff chedules f theUnitedStates .ReportpresentedytheSub-CommitteenWays ndMeans,U.S. House ofRepresentatives.Christopherson,.1983 SegmentationnSunbeltLaborMarkets . enterforU.S.-Mexican Studies.UniversityofCalifornia, an Diego: Researcheporteries.Edwards,R.1979 Contestederrain. ewYork:Basic Books.Edwards,R. et l.1975 LaborMarketegmentation.exington: .C. Heath and Co.Ferran, .1984 La familianuclearde la subculturade la pobreza dominicana ,Estudios ociales.27(3):137-185.Fox,B.1980 Hiddenn the ousehold.ntario:The Women's ress.Georges, .1984 New mmigrantsn thePolitical rocess:Dominicansn NewYork , ccasionalapers45),NewYorkUniversity,enterfor atin American nd CaribbeanStudies.Gonzalez,N.1976 MultipleMigratoryxperiencesfDominicanWomen , nthropologicaluarterly.9:36-431980 Peasants' rogress: ominicansn NewYork , aribbeantudies.0:154-171.GuilianoCury,H.1980 Refleccionescercae a economiaominicana.antoDomingo:EditoraAlfay OmegaGurak,D.1981 TheHispanicSettlementn New YorkCitySurvey . ispanicResearchCenter, ordhamUniversity.Gurak,D. andM. Kritz1982 Settlementnd mmigrationrocesses fDominicans nd Colombiansn NewYorkCity .Unpublished aper presentedt theAnnualMeetings ftheAmerican ociologicalAsso?

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Kessler-Harris, .1981 Women aveAlwaysWorked.ld Westbury:eministress.Lipsett, . and R. Bendix1959 SocialMobilityn ndustrialociety.os Angeles:UniversityfCalifornia ress.NACLA (NorthAmerican ongress or atinAmerica)1977 Capital'sFlight: heApparel ndustryMovesSouth ,NACLA.11:1-25.1982 DominicanRepublic The Launching f Democracy , ACLA.16:1-35.Oakley,A.1981 SubjectWomen. ew York:Pantheon ooks.O'Connor,J.1974 The iscalCrisis f he tate.NewYork:St. Martin's ress.Parson,T. and R. Bales1956 Family,ocializationnd nteractionrocess. ondon.Pessar, .1982 SocialRelationsWithin heFamilyn theDominicanRepublic ndUnitedStates:Con?tinuitynd Change . In HispanicsnNew York: eligious, ulturalndSocialExperiences.EditedbytheOffice fPastoralResearch.NewYork:Archdiocese fNewYork.1984a When heBirds fPassageWant o Roost: The Origins ndImplicationsfDominicanWomen's trategiesoProlongMigrationn theUnitedStates . n Sex ndClass nLatinAmerica.ditedbyJ. Nash and H. Safa. Forthcoming,.F.Bergin ublishers).1984b The Constraints pon and Release of FemaleLabor Power:The Case of DominicanMigrationo theUnitedStates .n WomenncomendPoverty.ditedbyD. Dwyer ndJ.Bruce. Forthcoming).Sacks,K.n.d. Computers,WardSecretariesnd a Walkoutn a Southern ospital .Unpublishedman?

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