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Gender
and Employment Among
Latino Migrant Farmworkers in Michigan
by Vivian D. Roeder
Michigan State University
and
Ann V. Millard
Michigan State University
Working
Paper No. 52
August 2000
Abstract:
This study investigates Latino farmworkers in Michigan in regard
to “occupational cycles,” defined as changes in types of
jobs during the year. Data for this study came from a survey of 350
residents of farm labor camps in 12 counties in Michigan. Of labor camp
residents, 99% were Latinos (mostly Mexican Americans) and 67% wintered
in regions to the south, mostly Texas and Florida. Nearly all women
and two-thirds of men lived with family members in households in the
labor camps. Statistical tests included cluster analysis and tests of
difference of means and proportions including partitioning of chi square
and a post hoc test for chi square equality of proportion. Over one-third
of study participants had nonagricultural jobs during the preceding
year. An unexpectedly high percentage of women had off-farm jobs (42%).
The percentage did not differ statistically from that of men (35%).
All the jobs were low-paying, but the status of women’s off-farm
jobs was higher than that of men’s. Women with off-farm jobs had
worked in significantly more states than other women, typically including
Texas rather than Florida, in contrast to men with nonagricultural jobs,
who tended to have worked in Florida. Education was not related to women’s
employment patterns although men with off-farm jobs had significantly
more education than others. These findings show that workers in the
migrant streams reaching the Midwest are more diverse in employment
than expected, and that this complexity characterizes women working
in the nonfarm sector as well as men. Furthermore, the position of women
migrant workers in generating income for their households is more important
than expected.
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