Sofer, Eugene F. Recent Trends in Latin American Labor Historiography. Latin American Research Review 15 (1980): 167-176. Womens identities are still closely tied to their roles as wives or mothers, and the term, (the florists) is used pejoratively, implying her loose sexual morals., Womens growing economic autonomy is still a threat to traditional values. Official statistics often reflect this phenomenon by not counting a woman who works for her husband as employed. Friedmann-Sanchezs work then suggests this more accurate depiction of the workforce also reflects one that will continue to affect change into the future. Sofer, Eugene F. Recent Trends in Latin American Labor Historiography. Latin American Research Review 15 (1980): 167-176. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2000. , edited by John D. French and Daniel James. The constant political violence, social issues, and economic problems were among the main subjects of study for women, mainly in the areas of family violence and couple relationships, and also in children abuse. Each of these is a trigger for women to quit their jobs and recur as cycles in their lives. What has not yet shifted are industry or national policies that might provide more support. History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth. Divide in women. These narratives provide a textured who and why for the what of history. The assumption is that there is a nuclear family where the father is the worker who supports the family and the mother cares for the children, who grow up to perpetuate their parents roles in society. Keep writing. Gender Roles In In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez. By the 1930s, the citys textile mills were defining themselves as Catholic institutions and promoters of public morality., Policing womens interactions with their male co-workers had become an official part of a companys code of discipline. What was the role of the workers in the trilladoras? There are, unfortunately, limited sources for doing a gendered history. It is possible that most of Urrutias sources did not specify such facts; this was, after all, 19, century Bogot. By 1918, reformers succeeded in getting an ordinance passed that required factories to hire what were called, whose job it was to watch the workers and keep the workplace moral and disciplined. According to this decision, women may obtain an abortion up until the sixth month of pregnancy for any reason. I specifically used the section on Disney's films from the 1950s. Farnsworth-Alvear, Talking, Flirting and Fighting, 150. Women Working: Comparative Perspectives in, Bergquist, Charles. The main difference Friedmann-Sanchez has found compared to the previous generation of laborers, is the women are not bothered by these comments and feel little need to defend or protect their names or character: When asked about their reputation as being loose sexually, workers laugh and say, Y qu, que les duela? Crdenas, Mauricio and Carlos E. Jurez. Education for women was limited to the wealthy and they were only allowed to study until middle school in monastery under Roman Catholic education. Colombian women from the colonial period onwards have faced difficulties in political representation. While there are some good historical studies on the subject, this work is supplemented by texts from anthropology and sociology. A 1989 book by sociologists Junsay and Heaton is a comparative study between distinct countries, with Colombia chosen to represent Latin America. French and James. This approach creates texts whose substance and focus stand in marked contrast to the work of Urrutia and others. It is not just an experience that defines who one is, but what one does with that experience. Gender symbols intertwined. The reasoning behind this can be found in the work of Arango, Farnsworth-Alvear, and Keremitsis. This focus is something that Urrutia did not do and something that Farnsworth-Alvear discusses at length. In spite of this monolithic approach, women and children, often from the families of permanent hacienda workers, joinedin the coffee harvest. In other words, they were not considered a permanent part of the coffee labor force, although an editorial from 1933 stated that the coffee industry in Colombia provided adequate and almost permanent work to women and children. There were women who participated directly in the coffee industry as the sorters and graders of coffee beans (escogedoras) in the husking plants called trilladoras.. The nature of their competition with British textile imports may lead one to believe they are local or indigenous craft and cloth makers men, women, and children alike but one cannot be sure from the text. Often the story is a reinterpretation after the fact, with events changed to suit the image the storyteller wants to remember. I am reminded of Paul A. Cohens book History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth. Farnsworths subjects are part of an event of history, the industrialization of Colombia, but their histories are oral testimonies to the experience. The 1950s is often viewed as a period of conformity, when both men and women observed strict gender roles and complied with society's expectations. Other recent publications, such as those from W. John Green. In reading it, one remembers that it is human beings who make history and experience it not as history but as life. The author has not explored who the. Bergquist, Labor in Latin America, 364. Keremetsiss 1984 article inserts women into already existing categories occupied by men. The article discusses the division of labor by sex in textile mills of Colombia and Mexico, though it presents statistics more than anything else. Depending on the context, this may include sex -based social structures (i.e. The state-owned National University of Colombia was the first higher education institution to allow female students. A higher number of women lost their income as the gender unemployment gap doubled from 5% to 10%. Gabriela Pelez, who was admitted as a student in 1936 and graduated as a lawyer, became the first female to ever graduate from a university in Colombia. This book is more science than history, and I imagine that the transcripts from the interviews tell some fascinating stories; those who did the interviews might have written a different book than the one we have from those who analyzed the numbers. . gender roles) and gender expression. The weight of this responsibility was evidently felt by women in the 1950's, 60's and 70's, as overall political participation of women between 1958 and 1974 stood at just 6.79%. Dr. Blumenfeld is also involved in her community through theMiami-Dade County Commission for Women, where served as chair of its legislative committee and as elected Member-at-large of the executive committee, and the Miami Beach Womens Conference, as part of the planning committee during its inaugural year. The main difference Friedmann-Sanchez has found compared to the previous generation of laborers, is the women are not bothered by these comments and feel little need to defend or protect their names or character: When asked about their reputation as being loose sexually, workers laugh and say, , Y qu, que les duela? Often the story is a reinterpretation after the fact, with events changed to suit the image the storyteller wants to remember. He looks at a different region and that is part of the explanation for this difference in focus. While women are forging this new ground, they still struggle with balance and the workplace that has welcomed them has not entirely accommodated them either. " (31) Drawing from her evidence, she makes two arguments: that changing understandings of femininity and masculinity shaped the way allactors understood the industrial workplace and that working women in Medelln lived gender not as an opposition between male and female but rather as a normative field marked by proper and improper ways of being female. The use of gender makes the understanding of historio-cultural change in Medelln in relation to industrialization in the early twentieth century relevant to men as well as women. Her work departs from that of Cohens in the realm of myth. Official statistics often reflect this phenomenon by not counting a woman who works for her husband as employed. Women Working: Comparative Perspectives in Developing Areas. The body of work done by Farnsworth-Alvear is meant to add texture and nuance to the history of labor in Latin American cities. A reorientation in the approach to Colombian history may, in fact, help illuminate the proclivity towards drugs and violence in Colombian history in a different and possibly clearer fashion. The men went into the world to make a living and were either sought-after, eligible bachelors or they were the family breadwinner and head of the household. This reinterpretation is an example of agency versus determinism. The church in Colombia was reticent to take such decisive action given the rampant violence and political corruption. They knew how to do screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone lace, wash and iron, make artificial flowers and fancy candy, and write engagement announcements. If, was mainly a product of the coffee zones,, then the role of women should be explored; was involvement a family affair or another incidence of manliness? Crafts, Capitalism, and Women: The potters of La Chamba, Colombia. Fighting was not only a transgression of work rules, but gender boundaries separat[ed] anger, strength, and self-defense from images of femininity., Most women told their stories in a double voice,. She received her doctorate from Florida International University, graduated cum laude with a Bachelors degree in Spanish from Harvard University, and holds a Masters Degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the University of Connecticut. Paid Agroindustrial Work and Unpaid Caregiving for Dependents: The Gendered Dialectics between Structure and Agency in Colombia,. If the traditional approach to labor history obscures as much as it reveals, then a better approach to labor is one that looks at a larger cross-section of workers. Duncan, Ronald J. French, John D. and Daniel James, Oral History, Identity Formation, and Working-Class Mobilization. In. Throughout the colonial era, the 19th century and the establishment of the republican era, Colombian women were relegated to be housewives in a male dominated society. Ulandssekretariatet LO/FTF Council Analytical Unit, Labor Market Profile 2018: Colombia. Danish Trade Union Council for International Development and Cooperation (February 2018), http://www.ulandssekretariatet.dk/sites/default/files/uploads/public/PDF/LMP/LMP2018/lmp_colombia_2018_final.pdf. This idea then is a challenge to the falsely dichotomized categories with which we have traditionally understood working class life such as masculine/feminine, home/work, east/west, or public/private., As Farnsworth-Alvear, Friedmann-Sanchez, and Duncans work shows, gender also opens a window to understanding womens and mens positions within Colombian society. This book is more science than history, and I imagine that the transcripts from the interviews tell some fascinating stories; those who did the interviews might have written a different book than the one we have from those who analyzed the numbers. According to the United Nations Development Program's Gender Inequality Index, Colombia ranks 91 out of 186 countries in gender equity, which puts it below the Latin American and Caribbean regional average and below countries like Oman, Libya, Bahrain, and Myanmar. Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986), ix. For example, the blending of forms is apparent in the pottery itself. In both cases, there is no mention of women at all. The Ceramics of Rquira, Colombia: Gender, Work, and Economic Change. Labor History and its Challenges: Confessions of a Latin, Sofer, Eugene F. Recent Trends in Latin American Labor Historiography., Crdenas, Mauricio and Carlos E. Jurez. Sibling Rivalry on the Left and Labor Struggles in Colombia During the 1940s. Latin American Research Review 35.1 (Winter 2000): 85-117. As ever, the perfect and the ideal were a chimera, but frequently proved oppressive ones for women in the 1950s. According to French and James, what Farnsworths work suggests for historians will require the use of different kinds of sources, tools, and questions. In the same way the women spoke in a double voice about workplace fights, they also distanced themselves from any damaging characterization as loose or immoral women. Friedmann-Sanchez,Paid Agroindustrial Work and Unpaid Caregiving for Dependents: The Gendered Dialectics between Structure and Agency in Colombia, 38. The Development of the Colombian Labor Movement, 81, 97, 101. Since women tend to earn less than men, these families, though independent, they are also very poor. In spite of a promising first chapter, Sowells analysis focuses on organization and politics, on men or workers in the generic, and in the end is not all that different from Urrutias work. She finds women often leave work, even if only temporarily, because the majority of caregiving one type of unpaid domestic labor still falls to women: Women have adapted to the rigidity in the gendered social norms of who provides care by leaving their jobs in the floriculture industry temporarily., Caregiving labor involves not only childcare, especially for infants and young children, but also pressures to supervise adolescent children who are susceptible to involvement in drugs and gangs, as well as caring for ill or aging family. The number of male and female pottery workers in the rural area is nearly equal, but twice as many men as women work in pottery in the urban workshops., In town workshops where there are hired workers, they are generally men. The historian has to see the context in which the story is told. Duncan, Ronald J. Crafts, Capitalism, and Women: The potters of La Chamba, Colombia. Unfortunately, they also rely on already existing categories to examine their subjects, which is exactly what French and James say historians should avoid. Retrieved from https://pulitzercenter.org/projects/south-america-colombia-labor-union-human-rights-judicial-government-corruption-paramilitary-drug-violence-education. As leader of the group, Georgina Fletcher was persecuted and isolated. Double standard of infidelity. Labor History and its Challenges: Confessions of a Latin Americanist. American Historical Review (June 1993): 757-764. The supposed homogeneity within Colombian coffee society should be all the more reason to look for other differentiating factors such as gender, age, geography, or industry, and the close attention he speaks of should then include the lives of women and children within this structure, especially the details of their participation and indoctrination. Latin American Women Workers in Transition: Sexual Division of the Labor Force in Mexico and Colombia in the Textile Industry. Americas (Academy of American Franciscan History) 40.4 (1984): 491-504. This idea then is a challenge to the falsely dichotomized categories with which we have traditionally understood working class life such as masculine/feminine, home/work, east/west, or public/private. As Farnsworth-Alvear, Friedmann-Sanchez, and Duncans work shows, gender also opens a window to understanding womens and mens positions within Colombian society. Historians can also take a lesson from Duncan and not leave gender to be the work of women alone. Oral History, Identity Formation, and Working-Class Mobilization. In, Gendered Worlds of Latin American Women Workers, Lpez-Alves, Fernando. Farnsworth-Alvear, Ann. Episodes Clips The changing role of women in the 1950s Following the Second World War, more and more women had become dissatisfied with their traditional, homemaking roles. French and James. Duncan thoroughly discusses Colombias history from the colonial era to the present. The 1950s saw a growing emphasis on traditional family values, and by extension, gender roles. If success was linked to this manliness, where did women and their labor fit? Franklin, Stephen. I have also included some texts for their absence of women. It is possible that most of Urrutias sources did not specify such facts; this was, after all, 19th century Bogot. Bergquist, Charles. There is some horizontal mobility in that a girl can choose to move to another town for work. Gender role theory emphasizes the environmental causes of gender roles and the impact of socialization, or the process of transferring norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors to group members, in learning how to behave as a male or a female. "The girls were brought up to be married. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997. Gerda Westendorp was admitted on February 1, 1935, to study medicine. . Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997. . Many have come to the realization that the work they do at home should also be valued by others, and thus the experience of paid labor is creating an entirely new worldview among them. This new outlook has not necessarily changed how men and others see the women who work. Farnsworth-Alvear, Ann. As established in the Colombian Constitution of 1991, women in Colombia have the right to bodily integrity and autonomy; to vote (see also: Elections in Colombia); to hold public office; to work; to fair wages or equal pay; to own property; to receive an education; to serve in the military in certain duties, but are excluded from combat arms units; to enter into legal contracts; and to have marital, parental and religious rights. There were few benefits to unionization since the nature of coffee production was such that producers could go for a long time without employees. Latin American Women Workers in Transition: Sexual Division of, the Labor Force in Mexico and Colombia in the Textile Industry., Rosenberg, Terry Jean. Policing womens interactions with their male co-workers had become an official part of a companys code of discipline. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Most union members were fired and few unions survived., According to Steiner Saether, the economic and social history of Colombia had only begun to be studied with seriousness and professionalism in the 1960s and 1970s., Add to that John D. French and Daniel Jamess assessment that there has been a collective blindness among historians of Latin American labor, that fails to see women and tends to ignore differences amongst the members of the working class in general, and we begin to see that perhaps the historiography of Colombian labor is a late bloomer. They were interesting and engaging compared to the dry texts like Urrutias, which were full of names, dates, and acronyms that meant little to me once I closed the cover. Shows from the 1950s The 1950s nuclear family emerged in the post WWII era, as Americans faced the imminent threat of destruction from their Cold War enemies. Friedmann-Sanchezs work then suggests this more accurate depiction of the workforce also reflects one that will continue to affect change into the future. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2000. These themes are discussed in more detail in later works by Luz G. Arango and then by Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, with different conclusions (discussed below). While there are some good historical studies on the subject, this work is supplemented by texts from anthropology and sociology. The only other time Cano appears is in Pedraja Tomns work.. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997. French, John D. and Daniel James. The only other time Cano appears is in Pedraja Tomns work. Again, the discussion is brief and the reference is the same used by Bergquist. Caf, Conflicto, y Corporativismo: Una Hiptesis Sobre la Creacin de la Federacin Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia en 1927., Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura. I have also included some texts for their, Latin America has one of the lowest formally recognized employment rates for women in the world, due in part to the invisible work of home-based labor., Alma T. Junsay and Tim B. Heaton note worldwide increases in the number of women working since the 1950s, yet the division of labor is still based on traditional sex roles.. The role of women in politics appears to be a prevailing problem in Colombia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. The body of work done by Farnsworth-Alvear is meant to add texture and nuance to the history of labor in Latin American cities. In shifting contexts of war and peace within a particular culture, gender attributes, roles, responsibilities, and identities They explore various gender-based theories on changing numbers of women participating in the workforce that, while drawn from specific urban case studies, could also apply to rural phenomena. This classification then justifies low pay, if any, for their work. Squaring the Circle: Womens Factory Labor, Gender Ideology, and Necessity. In The Gendered Worlds of Latin American Women Workers. As never before, women in the factories existed in a new and different sphere: In social/sexual terms, factory space was different from both home and street. It was safer than the street and freer than the home. Labor Issues in Colombias Privatization: A Comparative Perspective. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance 34.S (1994): 237-259. andLpez-Alves, Fernando. Required fields are marked *. Most cultures use a gender binary . Bergquist, Charles. It did not pass, and later generated persecutions and plotting against the group of women. The press playedon the fears of male readers and the anti-Communism of the Colombian middle and ruling classes. Working women then were not only seen as a threat to traditional social order and gender roles, but to the safety and political stability of the state. The Development of the Colombian Labor Movement. Most union members were fired and few unions survived., According to Steiner Saether, the economic and social history of Colombia had only begun to be studied with seriousness and professionalism in the 1960s and 1970s. Add to that John D. French and Daniel Jamess assessment that there has been a collective blindness among historians of Latin American labor that fails to see women and tends to ignore differences amongst the members of the working class in general, and we begin to see that perhaps the historiography of Colombian labor is a late bloomer. VELSQUEZ, Magdala y otros. The problem for. Gender Roles in 1950s Birth of the USA American Constitution American Independence War Causes of the American Revolution Democratic Republican Party General Thomas Gage biography Intolerable Acts Loyalists Powers of the President Quebec Act Seven Years' War Stamp Act Tea Party Cold War Battle of Dien Bien Phu Brezhnev Doctrine Brezhnev Era Sowell also says that craftsmen is an appropriate label for skilled workers in mid to late 1800s Bogot since only 1% of women identified themselves as artisans, according to census data. Additionally, he looks at travel accounts from the period and is able to describe the racial composition of the society. Freidmann-Sanchez notes the high degree of turnover among female workers in the floriculture industry. During this period, the Andes were occupied by a number of indigenous groups that ranged from stratified agricultural chiefdoms to tropical farm fall back into the same mold as the earliest publications examined here. During American involvement in WWII (1941-1947), women regularly stepped in to . were, where they come from, or what their lives were like inside and outside of the workplace. However, broadly speaking, men are the primary income earners for the family while women are expected to be the homemakers. The decree passed and was signed by the Liberal government of Alfonso Lpez Pumarejo. Gender Roles in Columbia in the 1950s "They knew how to do screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone lace, wash and iron, make artifical flavors and fancy candy, and write engagement announcements." Men- men are expected to hold up the family, honor is incredibly important in that society. Sowell, The Early Colombian Labor Movement, 14. For example, while the men and older boys did the heavy labor, the women and children of both sexes played an important role in the harvest., This role included the picking, depulping, drying, and sorting of coffee beans before their transport to the coffee towns., Women and girls made clothes, wove baskets for the harvest, made candles and soap, and did the washing., On the family farm, the division of labor for growing food crops is not specified, and much of Bergquists description of daily life in the growing region reads like an ethnography, an anthropological text rather than a history, and some of it sounds as if he were describing a primitive culture existing within a modern one. Specific Roles. Masculinity, Gender Roles, and T.V. Urrutia. A man as the head of the house might maintain more than one household as the number of children affected the amount of available labor. (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997), 298. In academia, there tends to be a separation of womens studies from labor studies. Cohabitation is very common in this country, and the majority of children are born outside of marriage. Duncans book emphasizes the indigenous/Spanish cultural dichotomy in parallel to female/male polarity, and links both to the colonial era especially. An additional 3.5 million people fell into poverty over one year, with women and young people disproportionately affected. This book talks about how ideas were expressed through films and novels in the 1950s and how they related to 1950s culture. By 1918, reformers succeeded in getting an ordinance passed that required factories to hire what were called vigilantas, whose job it was to watch the workers and keep the workplace moral and disciplined. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Dedicated writers engaged with the Americas and beyond. The Early Colombian Labor Movement: Artisans and Politics in Bogota, 1832-1919. Activities carried out by minor citizens in the 1950's would include: playing outdoors, going to the diner with friends, etc. The value of the labor both as income and a source of self-esteem has superseded the importance of reputation. war. What Does This Mean for the Region- and for the U.S.? Keremetsiss 1984 article inserts women into already existing categories occupied by men., The article discusses the division of labor by sex in textile mills of Colombia and Mexico, though it presents statistics more than anything else. But in the long nineteenth century, the expansion of European colonialism spread European norms about men's and women's roles to other parts of the world. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1969. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986. Women's rights in Colombia have been gradually developing since the early 20th Century. Duncan is dealing with a slightly different system, though using the same argument about a continuity of cultural and social stratification passed down from the Colonial era. Friedmann-Sanchez, Greta. Cano is also mentioned only briefly in Urrutias text, one of few indicators of womens involvement in organized labor. Her name is like many others throughout the text: a name with a related significant fact or action but little other biographical or personal information. subjugation and colonization of Colombia. Sowell, David. Bolvar Bolvar, Jess. [17] It is reported that one in five of women who were displaced due to the conflict were raped. He cites the small number of Spanish women who came to the colonies and the number and influence of indigenous wives and mistresses as the reason Colombias biologically mestizo society was largely indigenous culturally.. Duncan thoroughly discusses Colombias history from the colonial era to the present. Gender and Education: 670: Teachers College Record: 655: Early Child Development and 599: Journal of Autism and 539: International Education 506: International Journal of 481: Learning & Memory: 477: Psychology in the Schools: 474: Education Sciences: 466: Journal of Speech, Language, 453: Journal of Youth and 452: Journal of . 950 Words | 4 Pages. Sowell, David. At the same time, citizens began to support the idea of citizenship for women following the example of other countries. Eugene Sofer has said that working class history is more inclusive than a traditional labor history, one known for its preoccupation with unions, and that working class history incorporates the concept that working people should be viewed as conscious historical actors., It seems strange that much of the historical literature on labor in Colombia would focus on organized labor since the number of workers in unions is small, with only about, , and the role of unions is generally less important in comparison to the rest of Latin America.. She finds women often leave work, even if only temporarily, because the majority of caregiving one type of unpaid domestic labor still falls to women: Women have adapted to the rigidity in the gendered social norms of who provides care by leaving their jobs in the floriculture industry temporarily. Caregiving labor involves not only childcare, especially for infants and young children, but also pressures to supervise adolescent children who are susceptible to involvement in drugs and gangs, as well as caring for ill or aging family. Freidmann-Sanchez notes the high degree of turnover among female workers in the floriculture industry.