Gender dimensions of covid-19: Transborder women´s narratives in the mexicali-calexico case

Abstract

The pandemic has had implications at different levels. This article shows the im-pact on transborder women whose working lives have been affected, as has their struggle for their rights and their labor as care-workers. We underline the intrinsic articulation between economic and social relations of inhabitants on both sides of the international border, gender dimensions that affect trans-frontier women and the social differentiation that is generated between those that hold one type of document or another on view of the partial closure of the borderline. We base our analysis on ethnographic cases chosen a broader sampler (2019-2020) to account for a gamut of women who have made strides in their processes of autonomy and empowerment, but find themselves made vulnerable by the closure of the borderline.