Women, inequality and smuggling in the Ecuadorian borders / Mujeres, inequidad y contrabando en las fronteras ecuatorianas
Date
2017-03
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Estado & comunes, revista de politicas y problemas publicos, no. 5, vol. 2, julio-diciembre de 2017, 119-134 p.
Abstract
A web of power relationships at the border have perpetuated intersectional inequalities
that led women to become smugglers of fuel and propane cylinders in the border zones shared with Peru and Colombia, in El Oro and Carchi provinces in Ecuador. This web is supported by systems of discrimination based on gender, class, race and geographical location that foster unequal access to education, paid work, health services and comprehensive care against domestic violence, creating women’s insecurity. Customs control, police and military subsumed under national and border security aggravate the population security conditions. To address this empirical case, this article advances the concept of “feminist critical human security” to examine women’s security at Ecuador’s border zones. Further, drawing on Black feminism’s idea of intersectionality and matrix of domination, and feminist critiques of national security, this article proposes women smugglers as referents of security rather than as criminals, as the border security discourse views them.
Description
This article is the result of a grant provided by IDRC, in Ottawa, Canada. Work was done on site in the summer of 2013.
item.page.type
Journal Article (peer-reviewed)
item.page.format
Keywords
SEGURIDAD NACIONAL, SEGURIDAD HUMANA, FRONTERAS, CONTRABANDO, INEQUIDAD, MUJERES, INTERSECCIONALIDAD, ECUADOR, NATIONAL SECURITY, HUMAN SECURITY, BORDER, SMUGGLING, INEQUALITY, WOMEN, INTERSECTIONALITY, ECUADOR