Mexican-American Women in the Social Sciences

Abstract

The treatment of minority women in social science literature has long reflected the surrounding society's sexual and racial differentiation. Dorothy Smith's contention that women have been "outside the frame" of social science investigation is especially true of minority women.' As a consequence of erroneous assumptions and limited empirical research, Mexican-American women have been particularly misconstrued. The image of Chicanas in the social sciences has been narrow and biased. They have been portrayed as long-suffering mothers who are subject to the brutality of insecure husbands and whose only function is to produce children-as women who themselves are childlike, simple, and completely dependent on fathers, brothers, and husbands. Machismo and its counterpart of female submissiveness are assumed to be rooted in a distinctive cultural heritage.2