The Employment of Women in the Manufacturing Industry after NAFTA. Discrimination and Segregation

Abstract

Introduction-During the NAFTA negotiations, the impact that the execution of this Agreement would imply was comprehensively speculated and investigated. It was guaranteed, among other things, that Mexico would be the country with the greatest impact and a significant number of analysts pointed out that said impact would be positive (Lustig, 1992). While it was additionally mentioned that there would be some problems in sectors such as agriculture -where Mexico would be a losing country-, overall it was argued that there would be a greater growth for our country, that also the reforms initiated with the assumption of the Washington Consensus were going to be secured1 Since the early 1980s the country began to experience very important reforms regarding the previous growth model. Along with the accelerated openness that started in the mid-1980s with the entrance to the GATT, public companies began to be privatized (the government productive, financial and services capacity was reduced from 1090 entities, in the beginning of 1984, to 258 in 1994), the structure of public expenditure was modified, and the high public deficit became a surplus, fighting inflation and financial openness were prioritized and deregulation of the economy started., that the country would grow more, that most of the jobs would be created in Mexico and that there would even be a resource mobilization towards Mexico.