The Plight of Womanhood: Understanding the Undocumented Female Migrant Experience from Latin America to the United States

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/hh63sx382

Abstract

The physical migrant trek from Latin America to the United States is a foreign concept to many despite migration consistently serving as a point of political contention. While the nuances of the journey are seldom explained, one of the most obvious areas in which we lack information is in terms of a gendered analysis.

Thus, I investigate how gender norms and stereotypes constrain women on the physical migrant journey from Latin America to the United States. I examine how external perspectives coming from male actors on the migrant trail, glorify the fulfillment of female gendered responsibilities, making women subordinate to men. Whereas internal perspectives, coming from female migrants themselves, demonstrate that women accept their position within a gendered hierarchy and act with agency through gendered performances. These performances are mechanisms of survival. I conclude that gender norms always restrict women, but they maneuver and navigate the constraints placed upon them. Female gendered performances highlight that women are agentic, resilient and resourceful on the undocumented migrant trail and beyond.

Creator