American anthropologist
Martha Menchaca is an academic in the fields of social anthropology, ethnicity, gender, oral history, legal anthropology, immigration, and Chicana/o Studies on the relationship between U.S. and Mexican culture. Menchaca is recognized for her research on immigration, naturalization, and birthright citizenship. She is currently a professor at the University of Texas, Austin in the Department of Anthropology.
In 2019, Menchaca, along with professors Alberto A. Martinez, Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Emilio Zamora, Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, Francisco Gonzalez-Lima, Fred Valdez, Jr., and John Moran Gonzalez, authored the "Hispanic Equity Report", which demonstrated the violation of the equal employment opportunity clauses by UT Austin. Menchaca and others revealed how Hispanic Full Professors were paid approximately $25,342 less than White Full Professors, $10,647 less for Associate Professors, and $19,636 less for Assistant Professors while also receiving the lowest rates of promotion in the university, despite consistently being among the most published faculty.