Reproduction of (Surplus)value through the double exploitation of women workers in export agroindustries in Mexico

Abstract

This article analyzes the reproduction of value and surplus value in export agro-industries in western Mexico, from the perspective of a regime of double exploitation that combines precarization and feminization of wage labor with the appropriation of unpaid reproductive labor. From a feminist-Marxist approach and based on the dialectical Concrete–Abstract–Concrete method, it articulates theory and empirical data obtained from 25 interviews with women workers in avocado packing plants in the state of Michoacán and strawberry plantations/greenhouses in Jalisco. The results show occupational segmentation by gender, feminization of packing tasks and masculinization of field work, along with low wages, piecework, and polyvalence that intensify exploitation. In the domestic sphere, women workers assume or delegate to female networks the daily reproduction of the labor force, which reduces such costs for capital. The double, and even triple, working day generates physical and emotional overload, although it coexists with perceptions of pride in their work, agency, and technical knowledge. It is concluded that agro-export profitability is largely sustained by this double female exploitation, which leads to the proposal of a type of (surplus)value by reproductive externalization, as well as public and corporate policy recommendations to reduce the burden on women workers in these agro-industries.