The Change And Development Of Mexican-American Women Since 1960s

In the United States, Mexican immigrants are the objects of racial discrimination,who are the same to the other ethnic minorities.However, the oppressions suffered by Mexican women are even more serious: one comes from Anglo-Americans'discrimination;the other comes from sex discrimination of Mexican men. In the 1960s, a wide range of social reform movements had happened in the United States.The Second Feminist Movement shook the status of men.The movement proposed women to achieve gender equality and oppose gender discrimination.These concepts made Mexican-American women begin to oppose the oppressions suffered by themselves,which contained racial oppression,gender oppression and class oppression.At the same time,they wished to gain rights and equity.The main research perspective of the article is history.Meanwhile,the article uses the relevant knowledge of sociology and women's study.The purposes of the article are reflecting the living conditions of Hispanic-American women,shaping a complete and new image of Hispanic-American women,and analysing the change of the United States,according to studying the change and development of Mexican-American women since the 1960s.Inorder to analyse the change and development of Mexican-American women since the 1960s,as well as the reasons,this article is divided into three parts:The first part is Mexican-American women before the 1960s.It mainly presents the concepts and Social life of Mexican-American women before the 1960s,in order to contrast with the following text.At the same time,the first part makes the groundwork for the following text.In traditional culture of Mexico,women didn't have status.With more and more Mexicans emigrated to the United States,Mexican-American women changed their concepts.It prepared for Chicana Movement.The second part is Mexican-American women under the impact of Chicano Movement.It mainly presents that as Chicano Movement, how Mexican-American women explored to transform their roles.Because of the impact of traditional concepts,the choice between national interests and personal benefits,and the disbelief in White Feminist Movement, Chicano Movement did not get the most Mexican-American women's response at first.However,with the development of the movement,more and more Mexican-American women began to realize the oppressions suffered by themselves.In order to change the status and condition of themselves,many Mexican-American women joined in Chicano Movement.The First Chicana National Conference,which held in Houston in 1971,marked the beginning of Chicana Movement.Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) carried out Chicana Right Project,so that all American people paid attention to Mexican-American women. Chicana Right Project made some Mexican-American women acquire many equal rights,such as employment,health,housing,and so on.A series of demonstration activities made a lot of Mexican-American female students and female workers achieve their wishes.To some extent,their status had been changed.With the debouchment of Chicana Movement, Mexican-American women defined their own feminist opinion.The opinion included racial oppression and class oppression,which were denied by white feminists.The third part is the change and development in social status of Mexican-American women since 1960s. It mainly elaborates the change and development in employment, education and family status of Mexican-American women since 1960s.Menwhile,the part analyses the reasons.Chicano/a Movement brought some new changes in employment, education and family status to Mexican-American women.However, their overall situation is still very backward.