Dominican Women Case Study

Dominican women are an essential addition to NYC’s labor market because they work low-wage jobs which increase the total productivity of the city’s manufacturing industry. Because of these low-wage jobs, these women encounter challenges supporting their families because of the lack of upward socio-economic mobility; this then leads them to a marginalized lifestyle. Specifically, Dominican women tend to have higher levels of education than Dominican men (Gilbertson, 1995, p. 665) but still struggle with earning a living and supporting their family as single parents. The extent of single Dominican mothers is substantial: “40 percent of all Dominican households with children under the age of 18 in New York City are female-headed, and more than

As previously stated, there is a substantial number of Dominican mothers who struggle with finding jobs that financially sustain their families. Because of the economic disadvantages Dominican women encounter, these challenges do not help with their advancement and social mobility in New York City. This is a negative attribute for Dominican women, but their disadvantaged lifestyle leads to more low-wage laborers for New York City. As for Dominican women and their earnings, “Dominican women face a substantial gender gap in earnings; in 1989 the annual earnings of Dominican male workers was $15,088 while the comparable figure for women was only $11,347” (Foner, 2001, p. 256). This gap may seem small but considering most Dominican households in New York City are female-headed, this causes future problems. In fact, because of the extreme wage gap, female-headed households are more susceptible to the need of public assistance, such as welfare or food stamps, which contributes profoundly to the poverty rates in NYC (Foner, 2001, p. 256). Because of the high poverty rates in the Dominican community, this adds to NYC’s slower economic

Many Dominicans in New York City “tend to cluster in few high-density Latino areas; a settlement pattern conducive to enclave employment” (Gilbertson, 1995, p. 658). When a family moves to the United States from the Dominican Republic, it is much easier to adapt to their newfound home if they are around people that look, speak, and act like them – these people are reflections of their native country’s characteristics. Thus, when seeking job opportunities in the city, Dominicans receive “information about employment in certain sectors [which is] disseminated by workers in that sector to co-ethnic job-seekers” (Lysenko and Wang, 2015, p. 264) adding to the idea of an ethnic niche. Additionally, ethnic enclaves and ethnic niches can cohabitate in the same space because many ethnic niches can be found in an ethnic enclave. Although the wages which exist in enclave employment may not be the highest, one advantage is the “access to resources that facilitate entrepreneurship,” but women continue to encounter barriers that prevent them from achieving self-employment (Gilbertson, 1995, p. 658). Only about 5.6 percent of Dominicans are business owners (Gilbertson, 1995, p. 662). Furthermore, many Dominican women can be found in garment manufacturing business. In fact, in a New York