SEWSA 2016 Intersectionality in the New Millennium: An Assessment of Culture, Power, and Society

Western Agenda, Women’s Agency and Rising Transnational Relations in Latin America

Room 212, West Center

In the last 20 years we have witness the increasing participation of women as agents ( as opposed as tied migrants) in international migration. The increasing active participation of women as providers or their families in origin and their active participation in international labor markets are products of profound structural changes in their communities of origin and host societies. These structural changes have been triggered by the imposition of three major items in the international agenda: family planning (1960s-1970s), privatization efforts (1980s-90s), and women’s empowerment (1990s-2000s). Decreasing fertility rates have led to the changes in the structure of the population and its needs. Privatization efforts resulted in changes in the structure of the labor market that have detrimental for blue collar workers (mainly males). The movement towards women’s empowerment have transformed “some” gender roles that have led to the emancipation of women in patriarchal societies. This paper analyzes how the simultaneous implementation of these three Western agenda items resulted in the transformation of the structure and the role of the family and the increasing salience of transnational practices to sustain them.