Dominican Migrant Women

Chris said:

[SIZE=+2]Money yields power, but not equality, for Dominican migrant women ? A UN Study

What do you think? I found this paragraph interesting in terms of women returning to the DR:

"[/SIZE]While the remittances contributed to the alleviation of poverty, the study found that their potential for local development remained limited. Most of the small businesses that women launched upon their return showed very low levels of productivity and profitability, due to the lack of access to credit and technical training programmes."

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What do I think? -It's true, women are expected to fulfill a role and regardless if they are the breadwinners or not, Dominican men (for the most part) will not take the role that is perceived to be feminine.

Notice how in most Dominican households young boys are allowed to play, commit pranks, or just sit around while the girls have to help with the cooking, taking care of the younger kids, taking care of the boys who are most often doing nothing, have to help clean the house, and do her own chores, homework, etc. etc etc.

It's a learned behavior that will not change with women throwing themselves into the workforce and becoming breadwinners. It's a behavior that will only change once men and women are seen as equals. That is something that may not happen in its totality for quite some time, if ever in the DR.

Regarding the paragraph you found interesting, the only defect of the report is that it does not mentions what type of businesses Dominican women tend to establish the most. However, based on personal observation and hearing many Dominicans claims, it will not be too far fetched to assume that the businesses they were probably starting were mainly related to food preparation (ie. mesones, pica pollos, etc).

Ask many Dominicans what are the most profitable businesses and most will tell you anything that has to do with food. Their logic comes from the belief that all people have to eat, thus a food business will do well.

However, most Dominicans come to that conclusion purely on speculation. Many don't realize that the profitability of a food business depends more on the individual touches such enterprise offers the public and not so much on the actual food being offered. The main reason for this is due to the fact that the food industry (from formal restaurants to informal comedores) is highly saturated all over the Dominican Republic. No one is never too far away from a business selling food of some sort.

Thus, the profitability of such businesses will be lower, unless a particular business is in the right location OR, and perhaps even more importantly, offers an experience that is different from most establishments.

It could very well be that many of these Dominican women are entering highly saturated industries without offering something different for the general public to choose to do business with them vs. somebody else.

-NALs

"It'S A Man'S Man'S Man'S World"

1st line in lyrics says it all

This is a man's world, this is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

You see, man made the cars to take us over the road
Man made the trains to carry heavy loads
Man made electric light to take us out of the dark
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark

This is a man's, a man's, a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

Man thinks about a little baby girls and a baby boys
Man makes then happy 'cause man makes them toys
And after man has made everything, everything he can
You know that man makes money to buy from other man

This is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

He's lost in the wilderness
He's lost in bitterness

Chris said:

What I found interesting (or saddening), is that even with international experience, this study says that Dominican Women are coming back to the DR, unable or unprepared to take an economic role. Why?

It is hard for me to imagine that a Dominican women with international experience would come home to the DR to open a colmado?

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I don't know the answer to your questions, however I will say the following.

Very few uneducated people are able to become highly productive. To become highly productive a person must be able to analyse, contrast and compare, trust reports and studies, etc. This is particularly true when it comes to starting a business.

Most Dominicans (regardless if they are male or females) start businesses by mere speculation. They think it will work without doing their homework first.

Thus, hundreds of thousands of dollars later, they find themselves closing their businesses and/or bankrupt.

Money alone does not solves problems, money is simply the byproduct of an effective plan.

Effective plans take foresight that may not be as obvious or understood by someone who may have never attended school beyond the sixth grade.

Thus, you can take the country guy or gal out of the countryside, but you can never take the countryside out of them.

They may have experienced life beyond the DR, but....

Just a thought.

-NALs

Agree

Are those words from a James Brown song? They ring familiar.
Agree with you though. How can they be exposed to international
learning and come back and fall into the same burdens? I guess its
just what they're comfortable with. Like the very competent, multi-lingual, experiended woman I know here who opened her own little puta bar thinking she knew the ropes....closed....after 2 months. The new liquor laws killed her after- hours hangout. Her 'gut' told her yes!, reality told her no. Now she has 3 daughters to raise as a single mom, with a few gringo friends and their 'dad' to help her survive marginally. Their reality is in the present, but at least they have learned to dream somewhere along the road. Example: have you ever been to a bar where the girls working didn't know every single word to the song on the radio/jukebox, sound system? No senor. But it somehow lends them hope and escape. Intoxicating. Seems we are all intoxicated by our own dreams and desires or by the fatal chemicals of society as all societies through the ages have sought or imbibed in. Hopeful, and optimists we may be, an ounce of reason is worth.......... (fill in the blanks) a pound of cure. None of us have a clue. Take care of your own, albeit with some respect for others.
As my friend Hillary says: It takes a village
(OK, who have i ****ed off mentioning Hillary?)
lock and load

I think everything has to do with customer service. Although, they experienced this outside the country, they don't seem to grasp the virtue in this practice. Their target audience are usually the poor and the overall chopo men. They believe as long as they provide an enrivornment for "la chercha" the business will do good. The business will do good for the first few month because of the "what is in" phenomemom but after a short period, it will become old. Also humility plays a big role here as well. It is all too often that these females (this can also be applied to males) believe they are better than the rest because they travel and have jewelries. They have the air of a "Do?a" and try to impose themselves onto other people. Just my opinion.

Chris said:

What I found interesting (or saddening), is that even with international experience, this study says that Dominican Women are coming back to the DR, unable or unprepared to take an economic role. Why?

It is hard for me to imagine that a Dominican women with international experience would come home to the DR to open a colmado?

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First how do you define "international experience" ??

What if they are abroad cleaning hotels, does that mean they should be able to open a hotel in DR. What about working at a Bank in Spain. Does that mean they should be able to open a bank in DR. They are not going abroad for hight tech jobs or business consulting positions for the most part.

Lets flip it. How come Americans or Canadians who think they can come to DR and start a business and fail most of the time. They had all the access and knowledge in the world from their home country. I know their are many reason direct and indirect but they failed for the same reason a Dominican woman who opened a colmado and failed. Some reason such as location, environment, enough capital, competition. etc etc. The same reason Expats that come to DR, think that will strike gold and fail.

Most people and it doesn't matter what country, are not natural entrepreneurs (sp) or trained entrepreneurs. Even most Americans are just your typical consumer not business owners who think because they have more money in the bank it means automatic success if they try to start a business in DR. Most don't have the education or mindset or finanancial means or just plain old "business know how" to attempt to open a business.

The Dominican Woman also return back to a very poor country that has limited job opportunity, corruption and monopolies that would make it hard to start or even maintain a business. Its not the Dominican Womans fault.

Feeling pitty for them is not needed. I think you are setting high standards or expectations for them that even people from rich countries could not do.