History

Denise A. Segura, (Mar 1989) Chicana and Mexican Immigrant Women at Work The Impact of Class, Race and Gender on Occupational Mobility, Gender and Society, Vol. 3, No. 1, Sage Publications, Inc., pp. 37-52

Denise A. Segura states that occupational mobility like promotion, pay hike job status, etc. are all influenced by social and structural features of the labor market, familial responsibilities and individual characteristics. The author clarified this statement by examining the effects of labor market structure and social relations at work of Chicana and Mexican immigrant women who are segregated on the basis occupation.

The study reveals that black women or Latinas were often found working as sewing machine operators (13.49 Latinas and 12.86 Black women) and teaching aides (10.07 Latinas and 14.87 Black women). Promotions and pay increase in minority female dominated jobs depended on too many factors like vacancy, experience, productivity, etc. which would rarely be found within this community. It was found during the study that one respondent was promoted to assistant housekeeping manager after two years working in the low profile job.

The immigrants worked only as supporting staff and were not given the clerical jobs which were mostly white women dominated. The promotion and pay hikes were more frequent in white women. Most of the immigrant women faced discrimination with regards to promotion, pay hike, job improvement, etc. on the basis of social characteristics. Further it is stated that until and unless such women are not given an opportunity, their occupational mobility will remain largely subjective.