Sewing As A “Real Job” Among The Men Of Tekit, Yucatan

Abstract

This article presents a case study of the municipality of Tekit whose inhabitants passed from cultivating sisal plants on haciendas to working in sewing workshops to produce clothing. I argue that the change in their economic activity resulted in the construction of a social representation connected to the activity of sewing, one that is hegemonic and reveals a stereotyped gender system that imposes and converts the male worker into a masculine ideal. In contrast, the incorporation of women into this economic activity has been less valued and their work is considered as secondary to the men’s.