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This chapter provides a qualitative analysis of 40 immigrant women's labor force experiences in the Maritime provinces of Canada (the Maritimes). The framework of analysis is feminist and anti-racist and the point of departure is the immigrant women's own perspective. Immigrant women feel marginalized in the labor markets of the Maritimes, despite their qualifications, past work experience and willingness to work, as a result of specific systemic barriers they face in employment. Some of these barriers affect immigrant men or native-born women as well. Immigrant women, however, are affected, in addition, by the multiple and mutually reinforcing interactions of these barriers. In this chapter we examine immigrant women's strategies to overcome the systemic obstacles of the labor market.

Volume 9 is a collection of advances in gender research from various parts of the world. The papers document the types of work in which women engage, and gender equity issues they face. They show the importance of considering the uniqueness of cultural contexts for understanding and resolving problems, but they also show how global interdependence affects local gender realities. The papers in this volume fall into two broad and overlapping categories: gender, work and development, and gender and discrimination.

Autumn Behringer has completed her Ph.D. at Purdue University and started a position as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Weber State University in the fall of 2004. Her research centers largely on the study of gender, intimate relationships, and social inequality. Her dissertation is a symbolic interactionist analysis of marital communications. She has a chapter, “The Meaning of Husband and Wife: Spouses’ Perceptions of Marital Labels,” forthcoming in Couples, Kids, and Family Life (Oxford University Press).