Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hernandez, Sarah

Area of Concentration

International and Area Studies

Abstract

This thesis explores the relationship between women’s labor and reproductive rights and how it is experienced in the Honduran maquiladora industry. I explore this relationship through three main lenses: capitalism, patriarchy, and the lack of regulation of rights. This approach aims to describe the structures and ideologies that negatively impact working women’s labor and reproductive rights in maquiladoras. While I explain the repercussions of these structures and ideologies in the context of Honduras, I also emphasize the role of external forces and actors – foreign corporations and the United States – in perpetuating structural and systemic issues. Namely, an understanding of Honduras’s history and contemporary events and movements is necessary to understand that the United States has been invested in Honduran geo-politics since the early 19th century. Lastly, I discuss how these events correlate with working women’s current experience in maquiladoras. The labor and power structures created in the fruit plantations during Honduras’ banana republic era is replicated within an industrial setting, thus leading to the maquiladora industrial complex. In this modern and industrial context, inequality and exploitation is further perpetuated. Ultimately, this work presents an intersection of gender, labor rights, capitalism, and how women led grassroots organizations have been and continue to be at the forefront of Honduras’ labor justice movement.

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