Benefits and burdens: Immigrant women and work in New York city

This article analyzes the complex and contradictory ways that migration changes women's status in New York City-both for better and for worse. The focus is on the impact of women's incorporation into the labor force. On the positive side, migrant women's regular access to wages-and to higher wages-frequently improves their position in the household, broadens their social horizons, and enhances their sense of independence. Less happily, many migrant women work in dead-end positions that pay less than men's jobs. Immigrant working wives also experience a heavy double burden since the household division of labor remains far from equal.