The Latino Gender Gap in U.S. Politics

Christina E. Bejarano

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135010607
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Many questions remain unanswered about the observable differences in voting behavior, partisanship, and cultural attitudes among men and women. Latino political participation in the United States is generally lower than the rest of the population, mainly due to their high proportion of youth and foreign born populations that are ineligible to vote. This dynamic is slowing changing, partly as a result of the rapidly growing Latino population in the United States.

This book delves deeper into the complex gender differences for Latino political behavior. More specifically, it is a political analysis of the diverse U.S. Latino population and the interacting factors that can influence male and female differences in voting and policy attitudes. Christina E. Bejarano carefully unpacks more aspects of the gender category for Latinos, including analyzing the gender differences in Latino political behavior across national origin, foreign born status, and generational status.

The Latino gender gap can have far-reaching political implications on electoral politics. As the Latino population highlights their growing political sway, the major political parties have and will strategically mobilize and court the Latino electorate, Latinas in particular.

1 Gender Differences in the Immigrant Experience

“In America, we are all just a generation or two removed from somebody who made our future the purpose of their lives.”

—Florida Senator Marco Rubio (Speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention on August 30, 2012)

In this chapter, I join together the gendered analysis of migration and political incorporation to examine the varied immigration experiences for the Latino community. Then, I examine this qualitative work in terms of the diverse experiences of Latinos in the most recent political environment. I integrate an examination of the influence of gender and migration experiences on Latino immigrants’ political behavior.

The U.S. includes a growing foreign born population, with the largest number coming from Asian and Latin American countries. Since 1930, the number of female immigrants migrating to the United States, from almost every country, annually outnumbers the number of men (Jones-Correa, 1998b; Pedraza, 1991; Houstoun et al., 1984, Table 1).

Since 1995, the number of Latinas migrating to the United States also surpassed the number of Latino men. In addition, the flow of migrants from Mexico to the U.S. is predominantly women (Parrado et al., 2005; Cerruti & Massey, 2001; Kanaiaupuni, 2000). Women are also more likely than men to immigrate as adults (Zhou, 2003, p. 24).

Feminist scholars have examined this growing gendered trend of globalization, which is known as the “feminization of migration,” with a growing number of females choosing to migrate (often independently) in search of better economic opportunities (Yinger, 2006). The scholars have “demonstrated that globalization has varied effects, differentiated by gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality” (Hawkesworth, 2006, p. 11). A feminist perspective of migration highlights the experiences of both the women who choose to migrate and the ones who are left behind in the home country.

This globalization literature critiques neoliberalism policies, which have created a feminization of the labor force with a growing shift to the service economy and deterioration of working conditions (Hawkesworth, 2006; Moghadam, 2005). This expansion of women in the workforce may bring them an increased workload at home, as well as feminization of poverty among unskilled and marginalized poor women (Elson, 2002).

At the same time, women’s expansion in the workforce can also bring them more opportunities for empowerment. Feminist scholars also warn that strict immigration policies can limit the safe employment opportunities for migrant women, which may be restricted to exploitive work and living conditions (Hawkesworth, 2006; Piper, 2006).

Therefore, it is vital to critically analyze the gendered experiences of migration. How do men and women experience the process of migration? We know that Latino immigrant groups coming from a developing nation in Latin America to a post-industrial nation (the U.S.) can experience a variety of cultural and economic changes. In particular, the process of immigration can involve “changes in one’s value system, attitudes, behavior, way of life, and relationship patterns” (DeBiaggi, 2002, p. 2). How do these changes impact Latino political attitudes and participation?

Examining the role of gender can also help illuminate the debate over the role of immigrants’ transnational contact, or contact with their home country. Researchers currently debate whether immigrants’ transnational contact will positively or negatively influence their political participation in the United States. Do Latino immigrants retain their contact with their home country after arriving in the U.S.? Does increased time spent in the U.S. motivate immigrants to politically participate in their new host country? Does increased time in the U.S. also have the potential to change immigrant gender-roles and national identity?

The results demonstrate that Latino immigrants are less likely to retain strong contact with their home country as they spend more time in the U.S. In addition, Latinas do not fit with the traditional assimilation patterns, which include retaining strong national origin and American identities over time and generation. In addition, I argue the gendered political incorporation process provides Latinas with increased motivations and incentives to participate in politics.

Gendering Immigrant Experiences

Gender and migration scholars argue the experience of migration varies by gender, men and women undergoing migration in distinctive ways. They demonstrate that being “attentive to gender difference enhances our understanding of key features of settlement and the creation and maintenance of transnational identities, practices, and institutions” (Mahler & Pessar, 2006, p. 34). The experience of immigration “profoundly impacts the public and private lives of women—their labor force participation, their occupational concentration, their religiosity, their marital roles and satisfaction, and their autonomy and self-esteem” (Pedraza, 1991, p. 321). I bring together a variety of interdisciplinary research to examine the role of gender in Latino decisions to migrate, their experiences with assimilation and settlement, and their identity shifts, as well as their political incorporation.

Decision to Migrate

The decision to migrate to another country is the first significant gender distinction to recognize. Migrants can be motivated to move by the promise of better employment opportunities. The draw of better employment is highlighted in the following Latina statements (LNS, 2003):

-Woman (Houston, TX; Spanish):¹ “The majority of people who come here is to work, not because they want to leave Mexico, because in Mexico you live a pleasant life . . . you live relaxed.”

-Woman (Dalton, Georgia; Spanish): “I like the life I can give my children. Education especially.”

Latinos are drawn by the economic possibilities that are expected in the U.S. In addition, migrants can also be motivated by the promise of “more equitable gender relations” in the new host country (Pessar & Mahler, 2003, p. 829; Hirsch, 1999; Grasmuck & Pessar, 1991).

It is important to recognize that there are often gendered migration risks involved in the decision to head to the U.S. (Feliciano, 2008; Curran et al., 2006; Kanaiaupuni, 2000), since the passage can bring increased physical and economic risks for women. Many Mexican migrant women choose to follow their male relatives to the United States (Blau & Kahn, 2007; Curran et al., 2006, p. 212; see also Cerruti & Massey, 2001) since migrating with a spouse can reduce the risks involved for women (Curran et al., 2006, p. 212).

Yet, a growing number of women are now migrating independently to seek better employment opportunities (Yinger, 2006). Women may also be motivated to migrate because of risks involved within an abusive relationship (Phizacklea, 2002; Gamburd, 2000; Hart, 1984) or to flee a destructive situation in the home community (Mahler & Pessar, 2006, p. 31; Mills, 1999; Brettell, 1995). Female immigrants expect better protection and security in the United States than in their home country, a sentiment captured in the following focus group discussions (LNS, 2003):

-Woman (West Liberty, IA; Spanish): “In Mexico I lived with domestic violence, and there wasn’t any protection for me. Here [U.S.], I have that protection from domestic violence.”

-Man (Dalton, GA; Spanish): “We changed a little bit. I think here women have more protection. The environment in Mexico for women is more aggressive. It is better here. I am against domestic violence.”

Women’s decision to migrate can be seen as empowering, if it is a deliberate act of escaping dependence on or abuse from a husband (Grasmuck & Pessar, 1991; Pedraza, 1991). However, the process of migration brings hazardous risks for women, in the actual journey and from the psychological and health drawbacks from their separation from loved ones (Dreby, 2010; McGuire & Martin, 2007).

Given all the potential benefits and risks involved in the decision to migrate, what type of individual is still willing to make the move to a new country? In general, immigrants who choose to migrate are assumed to have a set of individual characteristics that would put them at an advantage. The women who decide to migrate are viewed as generally more independent and resourceful than those that choose to stay in the home country, with the act of migration seen as a “challenge to patriarchy” (Parrado, Flippen, & McQuiston, 2005, p. 352; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1992, 1994b). For example, Mexican female immigrants generally have a higher education level relative to the Mexican population (Feliciano, 2008; Blau & Kahn, 2007, p. 67). Mexican female immigrants are also more willing to take risks and challenge traditional gender norms (Feliciano, 2008). Therefore, immigrants are likely to have a set of characteristics that should help them in their transition and settlement in the new host country.

Employment Opportunities

Once individuals have made the choice to migrate, gender can also shape the new immigrant experiences in the destination country. Migration scholars find there are gendered differences that come with immigrant settlement, including the increased numbers of female immigrants entering the workforce in the United States (Jones-Correa, 1998b; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994). Among Mexican immigrant women, there is evidence of dramatic assimilation “into the U.S. labor market and relatively rapid erosion of the highly traditional labor supply patterns,” especially for newly arrived migrants (Blau & Kahn, 2007, p. 78).

Scholars find mixed effects for female immigrants as they increasingly enter the workforce. Case studies of immigrant women in the U.S. have found that women’s increased experience with the workforce transformed patriarchal household roles, increased women’s self-esteem, and encouraged women to seek more equalitarian household roles (Curran et al., 2006; Menjivar, 2003; Jones-Correa, 1998b; Pessar, 1984, p. 243). Ethnographers have found that the immigrant women in the workforce “often experience gains in personal autonomy, independence, and greater gender parity, whereas men lose ground” (Mahler & Pessar, 2006, p. 34). Employment can bring a sense of independence for immigrant women, such as the following sentiment from a focus group participant in Los Angeles, CA (2003):

-Woman (Spanish): “I have been very independent and have worked since I was 17, and everything I want I get; but I know if I go there [Nicaragua] it would be different.”

This Latina expresses how her employment provides her a sense of independence in the United States, which she acknowledges is different from her economic opportunities in her home country of Nicaragua.

Women’s employment in the U.S. has the possibility to both dramatically alter or reinforce their initial identities and gender-roles. Their employment can potentially reinforce their “primary identities as wives and mothers” and allow women “to redefine them in a more satisfying manner” (Pedraza, 1991, p. 322). As a result of acculturation, male and female immigrants often experience a liberalization of their gender-roles (DeBaggi, 2002, p. 100; Ghaffarian, 1987; Hannassab, 1991; Torres-Matrullo, 1976, 1980). For example, women’s employment can revise the traditional gender-roles for male immigrants (Smith, 2005) as they are required to take a more active role in maintaining the household.

These gender-role changes can bring tensions into marriage and gender relations (DeBaggi, 2002) since they require emotional and behavioral adjustments from both men and women (Sigel, 1992). As a result, some male immigrants report that their social status worsens after they settle in the new host country (Pessar & Mahler, 2003: Goldring, 1996; Hagan, 1994; Kibria, 1993; Rouse, 1992).

Despite these noted changes in gender dynamics upon migration, some scholars are also quick to point out that migration does not always bring positive life changes for women. These scholars have challenged the overly optimistic assumptions about the role of gender and migration. They argue this expectation leads to an “assimilationist and emancipating view of migration and gender” that would only assume a unidirectional increase in migrant women’s power in the U.S. (Parrado & Flippen, 2005, p. 626). Men and women may not both gradually experience more progressive gender attitudes in the U.S. In addition, migrant women’s employment in the U.S. does not always translate into greater relationship power (Parrado et al., 2005). Instead, the “male-dominated lines of authority” could actually get reinforced in the U.S. setting (2005, p. 607; Dreby, 2010).

Even though female migrants do experience expanded employment opportunities in the U.S., there might be a more modest impact of migration on other important dimensions, such as changing gender-role attitudes and other assimilation indicators (Parrado & Flippen, 2005, p. 627). Migrants can selectively assimilate or “selectively incorporate some aspects of the receiving society while simultaneously reinforcing cultural traits and patterns of behavior” from their country of origin (Parrado & Flippen, 2005, p. 626). Therefore, when women are confronted with gender-role changes in the new host country, they may react by emphasizing their traditional and modern gender-roles at the same time (Sigel, 1992). Therefore, migrant communities may actually experience reinforced traditional gender-role behaviors as a way of maintaining their cultural heritage in the new country (Parrado et al., 2005; Espin, 1999).

Demography research also provides strong evidence to “suggest that modernizing economies do not necessarily make women more equal or better off relative to men” since gender inequalities can linger in society (Riley, 1998, p. 533). Latinas “hav...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Original Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Significance of the Latino Gender Gap
• 1 Gender Differences in the Immigrant Experience
• 2 Gaps in Political Participation
• 3 Gaps in Public Opinion
• 4 Gaps in Political Ideology and Partisan Identification
• 5 Strategic Mobilization of Latinos
• Conclusion: Political Implications of the Latino Gender Gap
• Appendix
• References
• Index