Women and Labor in 20th-Century Latin America
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 May 2014
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 May 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766581-0093
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 May 2014
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 May 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766581-0093
Introduction
A robust field of study emerged in the late 1970s, primarily in the social sciences, and especially in sociology, anthropology, and economics. Social science research flourished as it critiqued international development policy (“women in development,” or WID). Policy concerns continue to drive much of Latin American studies, especially on women in rural work, as paid laborers, and as property owners. Scholars of women in development have explored women’s reasons for taking paid labor, the conditions of that work, and the social and family life of working women. Feminists questioned, and continue to question, whether entrance into the paid workforce empowered or further encumbered women. Topics of analysis include occupational segregation, sex-typing of occupations, and wage differentials. Scholars seek to identify the sources of gender inequalities in the organization of production, and debate the relative influence of interpersonal relations, socialization, and family. Research on the impact of development on women has centered on the relationship of women’s work to education, health, legislation, migration, demographics, family, sexuality, and societal norms. Paid domestic labor is generally either the largest or second-largest occupation for women in Latin American countries. Recent generations of scholars have integrated discourse analysis (borrowed from literary and cultural studies) into social science research. By and large, through the 1980s, labor historians focused on organized labor (largely dominated by men) and strategic industries (ports, mines, steel, automobile, agricultural production). By the 1990s, historians began to incorporate both women as historical actors, and gender as a category of analysis. Due to the paucity of historical studies of women, many scholars place women at the center of analysis while simultaneously remaining attentive to gender. Historical studies are more plentiful for countries with an early and robust history of industrialization, such as Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Since 2010, scholars have more seriously turned their attention to middle-class labor, including professional occupations, government employment, and office work. A key contribution of studies of women and labor has been the inclusion of paid and unpaid work into discussions of noncommodified labor, production value, reproduction of society, and labor movements. This article begins with scholarship that takes a regional approach, and then moves to scholarly production organized by country. Where both the historical and social science literature is rich, studies are offered for both categories.
Regional History
Early publication on the history of women and labor in Latin America appeared as journal articles and as essays in anthologies dedicated to women’s history broadly defined. French and James 1997 focuses on working women, with essays across the region and from a wide range of time periods; the introduction is useful to orient the novice. French and Bliss 2007 provides an introduction to the history of gender and sexuality and explain key concepts. Country-specific studies such as Olcott, et al. 2006 and Fernández Aceves, et al. 2006 are useful for the ways they contextualize women’s work within national historical phenomenon such as education, nationalism, and specific political cultures. Lavrin 1995 includes a chapter on women and work, and places that history within the larger context of the development of feminism and changes in women’s legal status in the Southern Cone.
Fernández Aceves, María Teresa, Carmen Ramos-Escandón, and Susie Porter, eds. Orden social e identidad de género: México siglos XIX y XX. Guadalajara, Mexico: CIESAS-Universidad de Guadalajara, 2006.
Chapters by Mary Goldsmith Connelly on women and men domestic workers and the opportunities and barriers to labor mobilization in the 1930s, Ana María Kapelusz-Poppi on the impact of scientific discourse and the professionalization of medicine on the work of midwifery, and Susie S. Porter on office workers in 1930s Mexico City.
French, John D., and Daniel James, eds. The Gendered Worlds of Latin American Women Workers. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997.
Draws on and theorizes the uses of oral history, subjectivity, and negotiating gender norms and material conditions. Examines the prevalence of the domestic ideal; legal, social, and cultural regulation of women’s work; and the impact wage earning on gender relations within the family. Includes essays on domestic violence and sexual control; working—class feminism; and, women in mining communities.
French, William E., and Katherine E. Bliss, eds. Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Latin America since Independence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.
See especially Laura E. Putnam’s “Work, Sex, and Power in A Central American Export Economy at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” (pp. 133–162). The editors’ introduction is a useful entry-level introduction to key terms (gender, sexuality, discourse, and queer theory) and to Latin American women’s history.
Lavrin, Asuncion. Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, 1890–1940. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
Chapter two, “Labor and Feminism: Foundations of Change,” argues that shifts in women’s workforce participation informed feminism. While the work focuses on three specific countries, the analysis is highly suggestive of regional trends.
Olcott, Jocelyn, Mary Kay Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano, eds. Sex in Revolution. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.
Chapters by María Teresa Fernández Aceves on the impact of mechanization of the tortilla industry on female workers, Heather Fowler-Salamini on coffee-sorter community and labor organizing, and Susan M. Gauss on how occupational segregation limited women’s effectiveness in gaining labor concessions. Published in Spanish as Género, poder y política en el México posrevolucionario, edited by Gabriela Cano, Mary Kay Vaughan y Jocelyn Olcott (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2009).
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abolition
- Abortion and Infanticide
- African-Descent Women in Colonial Latin America
- Agricultural Technologies
- Alcohol Use
- Ancient Andean Textiles
- Andean Contributions to Rethinking the State and the Natio...
- Andean Music
- Andean Social Movements (Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru)
- Anti-Asian Racism
- Antislavery Narratives
- Arab Diaspora in Brazil, The
- Arab Diaspora in Latin America, The
- Argentina in the Era of Mass Immigration
- Argentina, Slavery in
- Argentine Literature
- Army of Chile in the 19th Century
- Asian Art and Its Impact in the Americas, 1565–1840
- Asian-Peruvian Literature
- Asunción
- Atlantic Creoles
- Baroque and Neo-baroque Literary Tradition
- Beauty in Latin America
- Bello, Andrés
- Black Experience in Colonial Latin America, The
- Black Experience in Modern Latin America, The
- Body, The
- Bogotá
- Bolaño, Roberto
- Borderlands in Latin America, Conquest of
- Borges, Jorge Luis
- Bourbon Reforms, The
- Brazilian Northeast, History of the
- Brazilian Popular Music, Performance, and Culture
- Buenos Aires
- Cali
- California Missions, The
- Caracas
- Caribbean Philosophical Association, The
- Caribbean, The Archaeology of the
- Cartagena de Indias
- Caste War of Yucatán, The
- Caudillos, 19th Century
- Cádiz Constitution and Liberalism, The
- Central America, The Archaeology of
- Chaco War
- Children, History of
- Chile's Struggle for Independence
- Chronicle, The
- Church in Colonial Latin America, The
- Chávez, Hugo, and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela
- Cinema, Contemporary Brazilian
- Cinema, Latin American
- Colonial Central America
- Colonial Latin America, Crime and Punishment in
- Colonial Latin America, Pilgrimage in
- Colonial Legal History of Peru
- Colonial Lima
- Colonial New Granada
- Colonial Portuguese Amazon Region, from the 17th to 18th C...
- Comics, Cartoons, Graphic Novels
- Contemporary Indigenous Film and Video Production
- Contemporary Indigenous Social and Political Thought
- Contemporary Maya, The
- Cortés, Hernán
- Costa Rica
- Cárdenas and Cardenismo
- Cuban Revolution, The
- de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Fernando
- Dependency Theory in Latin American History
- Development of Architecture in New Spain, 1500–1810, The
- Development of Painting in Peru, 1520–1820, The
- Disability
- Drug Trades in Latin America
- Dutch in South America and the Caribbean, The
- Early Colonial Forms of Native Expression in Mexico and Pe...
- Economies from Independence to Industrialization
- Ecuador
- Ecuador, La Generación del 30 in
- Education in New Spain
- El Salvador
- Enlightenment and its Visual Manifestations in Spanish Ame...
- Environmental History
- Era of Porfirio Díaz, 1876–1911, The
- Family History
- Film, Science Fiction
- Football (Soccer) in Latin America
- Franciscans in Colonial Latin America
- From "National Culture" to the "National Popular" and the ...
- Gaucho Literature
- Gender and History in the Andes
- Gender during the Period of Latin American Independence
- Gender in Colonial Brazil
- Gender in Postcolonial Latin America
- Gentrification in Latin America
- Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe
- Guaraní and Their Legacy, The
- Guatemala and Yucatan, Conquest of
- Guatemala City
- Guatemala (Colonial Period)
- Guatemala (Modern & National Period)
- Haitian Revolution, The
- Havana
- Health and Disease in Modern Latin America, History of
- History, Cultural
- History, Food
- History of Health and Disease in Latin America and the Car...
- Honor in Latin America to 1900
- Honor in Mexican Public Life
- Horror in Literature and Film in Latin America
- Hospitals
- Human Rights in Latin America
- Immigration in Latin America
- Independence in Argentina
- Indigenous Borderlands in Colonial and 19th-Century Latin ...
- Indigenous Elites in the Colonial Andes
- Indigenous Peoples of the Andean Region during the Colonia...
- Indigenous Population and Justice System in Central Mexico...
- Indigenous Voices in Literature
- Japanese Presence in Latin America
- Jesuits in Colonial Latin America
- Jewish Presence in Latin America, The
- José María Arguedas and Early 21st Century Cultural and Po...
- Las Casas, Bartolomé de
- Latin American Independence
- Latin American Multispecies Studies
- Latin American Theater and Performance
- Latin American Urbanism, 1850-1950
- Law and Society in Latin America since 1800
- Legal History of New Spain, 16th-17th Centuries
- Legal History of the State and Church in 18th Century New ...
- LGBT Literature
- Literature, Argentinian
- Machado de Assis
- Magical Realism
- Maroon Societies in Latin America
- Marriage in Colonial Latin America
- Martí, José, and Cuba
- Menchú, Rigoberta
- Mesoamerica, The Archaeology of
- Mestizaje and the Legacy of José María Arguedas
- Mexican Nationalism
- Mexican Revolution, 1910–1940, The
- Mexican-US Relations
- Mexico, Conquest of
- Mexico, Education in
- Mexico, Health Care in 20th-Century
- Migration to the United States
- Military and Modern Latin America, The
- Military Government in Latin America, 1959–1990
- Military Institution in Colonial Latin America, The
- Mining
- Mining Extraction in Latin America
- Modern Decorative Arts and Design, 1900–2000
- Modern Populism in Latin America
- Modernity and Decoloniality
- Montevideo
- Music in Colonial Latin America
- Musical Tradition in Latin America, The
- Mystics and Mysticism
- Native Presence in Postconquest Central Peru
- Natural Disasters in Early Modern Latin America
- Neoliberalism
- Neruda, Pablo
- New Conquest History and the New Philology in Colonial Mes...
- New Left in Latin America, The
- Novel, Chronology of the Venezuelan
- Novel of the Mexican Revolution, The
- Novel, 19th Century Haitian
- Novel, The Colombian
- Nuns and Convents in Colonial Latin America
- Oaxaca, Conquest and Colonial
- Ortega, José y Gasset
- Painting in New Spain, 1521–1820
- Paraguay
- Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance)
- Pastoralism in the Andes
- Paz, Octavio
- Perón and Peronism
- Peru, Colonial
- Peru, Conquest of
- Peru, Slavery in
- Philippines Under Spanish Rule, 1571-1898
- Photography in the History of Race and Nation
- Piracy
- Political Exile in Latin America
- Ponce de León
- Popular Culture and Globalization
- Popular Movements in 19th-Century Latin America
- Portuguese-Spanish Interactions in Colonial South America
- Post Conquest Aztecs
- Post-Conquest Demographic Collapse
- Poverty in Latin America
- Preconquest Incas
- Pre-conquest Mesoamerican States, The
- Pre-Revolutionary Mexico, State and Nation Formation in
- Printing and the Book
- Prints and the Circulation of Colonial Images
- Protestantism in Latin America
- Puerto Rican Literature
- Quipu
- Religions in Latin America
- Revolution and Reaction in Central America
- Rosas, Juan Manuel de
- Sandinista Revolution and the FSLN, The
- Santo Domingo
- Science and Empire in the Iberian Atlantic
- Science and Technology in Modern Latin America
- Sephardic Culture
- Sexualities in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Slavery in Brazil
- São Paulo
- South American Dirty Wars
- South American Missions
- Spanish American Arab Literature
- Spanish and Portuguese Trade, 1500–1750
- Spanish Caribbean In The Colonial Period, The
- Spanish Colonial Decorative Arts, 1500-1825
- Spanish Florida
- Spanish Pacific, The
- Spiritual Conquest of Latin America, The
- Sports in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Studies on Academic Literacies in Spanish-Speaking Latin A...
- Telenovelas and Melodrama in Latin America
- Textile Traditions of the Andes
- 19th Century and Modernismo Poetry in Spanish America
- 20th-Century Mexico, Mass Media and Consumer Culture in
- 16th-Century New Spain
- Tourism in Modern Latin America
- Transculturation and Literature
- Trujillo, Rafael
- Tupac Amaru Rebellion, The
- United States and Castro's Cuba in the Cold War, The
- United States and the Guatemalan Revolution, The
- United States Invasion of the Dominican Republic, 1961–196...
- Urban History
- Urbanization in the 20th Century, Latin America’s
- Uruguay
- US–Latin American Relations during the Cold War
- Vargas, Getúlio
- Venezuela
- Venezuelan Literature
- Women and Labor in 20th-Century Latin America
- Women in Colonial Latin American History
- Women in Modern Latin American History
- Women's Property Rights, Asset Ownership, and Wealth in La...
- World War I in Latin America
- Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas