Intersectionality at Work: Determinants of Labor Supply among Immigrant Hispanic Women

Chenoa A. Flippen, University of Pennsylvania

This article borrows from the intersectionality literature to investigate how legal status, labor market position, and family characteristics structure the labor supply of immigrant Hispanic women in Durham, NC, a new immigrant destination. The analysis takes a broad view of labor force participation, analyzing the predictors of whether or not women work; whether and how the barriers to work vary across occupations; and the determinants of variation in hours and weeks worked among the employed. Results highlight that immigrant Hispanic women experience multiple, interrelated constraints on employment owing to their position as low-skill workers in a labor market highly segregated by gender and nativity, to their status as members of a largely undocumented population, and as wives and mothers in an environment characterized by significant work-family conflict.