How did industrialization and modernization change women's roles in Latin America

The impact of industrialization on women is mixed and controversial. On the one hand, new industrial enterprises provide women with employment opportunities and there is a tendency to expand employment opportunities for more women. Wages in industry are higher than in agriculture, and also higher than the income of self-employed small farmers and unpaid workers - members of their family. Social income (pensions, social insurance payments, etc.) is more accessible to industrial than agricultural workers, and working conditions in industry are sometimes preferable to conditions in agriculture. If it is accompanied by increasing productivity of the national economy, industrialization creates funds for public investment in the service sector, which reduces women's maternal and home workloads and allows them to work for hire outside the home. On the other hand, the strictness of the rules of the production process, the monotony of industrial work, especially on assembly lines, and the operational nature of the working relationships existing in the processing zones of exported goods represent an important exception.

There is also evidence that women receive fewer benefits from industrialization than men. The main evidence of this is salary and other payments, which are lower than for men in all countries. Women's salaries range from half to four fifths of men's salaries. The main reasons for these discrepancies are women's lack of professional training, discriminatory labor policies and practices, and occupational segregation instead of differentiating qualifications, as the definition of qualifications is rarely objective or neutral.