Women in this country are most likely to be enlisted as workers in virtually all flower

production processes (Palan 1999). The preference for female labor in production work

in Ecuador is explained by the idea that flower care is similar to child care, where women

assume the responsibility for the entire process of growth, up to harvesting and packaging

(Palan 1999:14). Mexican flower producers sustain the same idea. Razavi (2002)

transcribed the comment of a female flower manager who stated "plants are like children

and must be cared for in order to grow into beautiful plants" (Razavi 2002: 94)

 Referring to the Mexican experience, Lara Flores (1995) explains that flower

agribusiness managers prefer women because they are more flexible, and they easily

accept organizational changes and increased work times, which is important for some

rush periods like Valentines and Mother's Day. In addition, flower agribusiness prefers

young women workers because they are flexible enough to rotate into different tasks and

even different plantations (Lara Flores 1995: 29).

 Another explanation why women are preferred for work in some sectors of the new

work scenario in Latin America is the idea that women are more responsible. Analyzing

women's situation in the "maquiladoras" industry in Mexico, Iglesias Prieto (1999)

explains that there exists an ideologically constructed perception of the essential nature of

women, which implies their putative inferiority as intellectual and political actors. This

supposition underlies women's vocation for and justifies their employment in tedious and

repetitive labor (Iglesias Prieto 1999: 29). An Ecuadorian flower agribusiness manager

summarized this prejudice saying that "las mujeres son mds detallistas" (women are

more detail oriented) to justify why they are preferred at his plantation. Women's

responsibility, delicateness, docility, confidence, and submission, which in the words of