Retos y estrategias para el cuidado infantil de las madres trabajadoras en la industria maquiladora de Apodaca, Nuevo León

The objective of this research is to analyze the child care challenges faced by working mothers in the maquiladora industry and the strategies they use to combine their worlds of work and the family, through a qualitative research methodology, using a case study in the industrial city of Apodaca, Nuevo León. The case was built from documentary research, field observation and semi-structured interviews with working mothers and human resources staff in maquiladoras. We found that there is a shortfall in the installed capacity of childcare facilities in Apodaca, besides distance and times problems, so that mothers have to make use of other daycares or even informal care, through neighbors and family, expending extra money and decrecing their disposable income, or away from the labor market. This limits the optimal participation of women in the maquiladora model, the possibility of combining their worlds of work and the family, and affect the quality of care given to infants at this important stage of his life.