Female workers: The Pampa’s schoolteachers in the first half of the twentieth century

Abstract

During the inter-war period a series of transformations affected women’s condition. Thus, while the idea of modern woman was becoming rooted in the imaginary of the time, the female participation in the labor market was constantly growing. The strengthening of some female professions was due -to a great extent- to the increase in the intervention of the state sphere; and specifically, it was related with the emergence of public policies in areas so far relegated by the governmental speech: education and social and health assistance. The incorporation of the protection of mothers and children within the state agenda transformed the demands, around the thirties, towards professions consolidated as feminine, especially that of teachers. This work attempts to deepen the examination of the world of female work through the analysis of a profession that massively incorporates women. Apart from making women’s importance visible, sources written by them as educative agents that we found in educational archives (such as institutional historical books, records, visits, the records of parent’s auxiliaries, and other school associations) allow us to enter the complex web of relationships that accompanied and framed the labor development.