Vol. 1, Issue 2, Part A (2019)

Abstract: The unequal distribution of domestic labor is one of the predominant reasons that Western working mothers have had to seek domestic care outside their family unit resulting in the commodification of childcare and domestic work. In this new mothering paradigm, a dynamic market of transnational mothers has been created to meet the demands of a new gendered class, in which mothers are all uniquely connected to each other in the raising of their children. In this essay, I examine discourse from literature on immigration and transnational constructions of family, motherhood, and women’s localized workplace and historical space in Los Angeles, California. I employ Feminist Third World Theory and Global Systems theory to a “localized” case study in the examination of how working Latina mothers maintain, resist, and challenge their socio-economic position in a transnational globalized work force.