gender roles in colombia 1950s

Between the nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century television transformed from an idea to an institution. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. The use of oral testimony requires caution. Corliss, Richard. A 2006 court decision that also allowed doctors to refuse to perform abortions based on personal beliefs stated that this was previously only permitted in cases of rape, if the mother's health was in danger, or if the fetus had an untreatable malformation. Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Really thank you! Labor Issues in Colombias Privatization: A Comparative Perspective. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance 34.S (1994): 237-259. andLpez-Alves, Fernando. Women Working: Comparative Perspectives in, Bergquist, Charles. Duncan, Ronald J. Men were authoritative and had control over the . 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. While pottery provides some income, it is not highly profitable. This understanding can be more enlightening within the context of Colombian history than are accounts of names and events. Each author relies on the system as a determining factor in workers identity formation and organizational interests, with little attention paid to other elements. Womens work in cottage-industry crafts is frequently viewed within the local culture as unskilled work, simply an extension of their domestic work and not something to be remunerated at wage rates used for men.. This focus is something that Urrutia did not do and something that Farnsworth-Alvear discusses at length. Indeed, as I searched for sources I found many about women in Colombia that had nothing to do with labor, and vice versa. Rosenberg, Terry Jean. In 1936, Mara Carulla founded the first school of social works under the support of the Our Lady of the Rosary University. This analysis is one based on structural determinism: the development and dissemination of class-based identity and ideology begins in the agrarian home and is passed from one generation to the next, giving rise to a sort of uniform working-class consciousness. Since women tend to earn less than men, these families, though independent, they are also very poor. 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. 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. For example, the blending of forms is apparent in the pottery itself. Paid Agroindustrial Work and Unpaid Caregiving for Dependents: The Gendered Dialectics between Structure and Agency in Colombia, 38. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997. Paid Agroindustrial Work and Unpaid Caregiving for Dependents: The Gendered Dialectics between Structure and Agency in Colombia,. Television shows, like Father Knows Best (above), reinforced gender roles for American men and women in the 1950s. The authors observation that religion is an important factor in the perpetuation of gender roles in Colombia is interesting compared to the other case studies from non-Catholic countries. At the same time, women still feel the pressures of their domestic roles, and unpaid caregiving labor in the home is a reason many do not remain employed on the flower farms for more than a few years at a time.. The data were collected from at least 1000 households chosen at random in Bogot and nearby rural areas. This is essentially the same argument that Bergquist made about the family coffee farm. 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 . Her work departs from that of Cohens in the realm of myth. . This reinterpretation is an example of agency versus determinism. Like what youve read? Like!! My own search for additional sources on her yielded few titles, none of which were written later than 1988. 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. Any form of violence in the 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. Womens role in organized labor is limited though the National Coffee Strikes of the 1930s, which involved a broad range of workers including the, In 1935, activists for both the Communist Party and the UNIR (Uni, n Nacional Izquierda Revolucionaria) led strikes., The efforts of the Communist Party that year were to concentrate primarily on organizing the female work force in the coffee, where about 85% of the workforce consisted of, Yet the women working in the coffee towns were not the same women as those in the growing areas. The book goes through the Disney movies released in the 1950s and how they reinforced the social norms at the time, including gender norms. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. 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. Bolvar is narrowly interested in union organization, though he does move away from the masses of workers to describe two individual labor leaders. 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. Crafts, Capitalism, and Women: The potters of La Chamba, Colombia. This understanding can be more enlightening within the context of Colombian history than are accounts of names and events. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997. Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia. Friedmann-Sanchez,Paid Agroindustrial Work and Unpaid Caregiving for Dependents: The Gendered Dialectics between Structure and Agency in Colombia, 38. Viking/Penguin 526pp 16.99. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1998. This approach creates texts whose substance and focus stand in marked contrast to the work of Urrutia and others. 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 workers are undifferentiated masses perpetually referred to in generic terms: carpenters, tailors, and crafts, Class, economic, and social development in Colombian coffee society depended on family-centered, labor intensive coffee production., Birth rates were crucial to continued production an idea that could open to an exploration of womens roles yet the pattern of life and labor onsmall family farms is consistently ignored in the literature., Similarly to the coffee family, in most artisan families both men and women worked, as did children old enough to be apprenticed or earn some money., It was impossible to isolate the artisan shop from the artisan home and together they were the primary sources of social values and class consciousness.. French, John D. and Daniel James. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Friedmann-Sanchez, Greta. This focus is especially apparent in his chapter on Colombia, which concentrates on the coffee sector., Aside from economics, Bergquist incorporates sociology and culture by addressing the ethnically and culturally homogenous agrarian society of Colombia as the basis for an analysis focused on class and politics., In the coffee growing regions the nature of life and work on these farms merits our close attention since therein lies the source of the cultural values and a certain political consciousness that deeply influenced the development of the Colombian labor movement and the modern history of the nation as a whole.. If success was linked to this manliness, where did women and their labor fit? Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997, 2. . Official statistics often reflect this phenomenon by not counting a woman who works for her husband as employed. Women filled the roles of housewife, mother and homemaker, or they were single but always on the lookout for a good husband. Education for women was limited to the wealthy and they were only allowed to study until middle school in monastery under Roman Catholic education. He also takes the reader to a new geographic location in the port city of Barranquilla. 40 aos del voto de la mujer en Colombia. These are grand themes with little room for subtlety in their manifestations over time and space. This roughly translates to, so what if it bothers anyone? Bergquist, Charles. In La Chamba, as in Rquira, there are few choices for young women. The author has not explored who the escogedoras were, where they come from, or what their lives were like inside and outside of the workplace. Both men and women have equal rights and access to opportunities in law. Most are not encouraged to go to school and there is little opportunity for upward mobility. Women's infidelity seen as cardinal sin. Press Esc to cancel. Explaining Confederation: Colombian Unions in the 1980s. Latin American Research Review 25.2 (1990): 115-133. This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 14:07. Friedmann-Sanchezs work then suggests this more accurate depiction of the workforce also reflects one that will continue to affect change into the future. The historian has to see the context in which the story is told. Squaring the Circle: Womens Factory Labor, History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth. 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. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997. andDulcinea in the Factory: Myths, Morals, Men, and Women in Colombias Industrial Experiment, 1905-1960, (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000). Women Working: Comparative Perspectives in Developing Areas. Freidmann-Sanchez notes the high degree of turnover among female workers in the floriculture industry. 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. 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 distinction separates the work of Farnsworth-Alvear from that of Duncan, Bergquist, or Sowell. The same pattern exists in the developing world though it is less well-researched. This focus is especially apparent in his chapter on Colombia, which concentrates on the coffee sector.. Bogot: Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, 1991. Friedmann-Sanchezs work then suggests this more accurate depiction of the workforce also reflects one that will continue to affect change into the future. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1998. Online Documents. Duncan, Ronald J. Crafts, Capitalism, and Women: The potters of La Chamba, Colombia. Pedraja Tomn, Women in Colombian Organizations, 1900-1940., Keremitsis, Latin American Women Workers in Transition.. Women in Colombian Organizations, 1900-1940: A Study, Saether, Steiner. With the growing popularity of the television and the importance of consumer culture in the 1950s, televised sitcoms and printed advertisements were the perfect way to reinforce existing gender norms to keep the family at the center of American society. Some texts published in the 1980s (such as those by Dawn Keremitsis, ) appear to have been ahead of their time, and, along with Tomn,. Sowell, David. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1969. in contrast to non-Iberian or Marxist characterizations because the artisan occupied a different social stratum in Latin America than his counterparts in Europe. She is . "The girls were brought up to be married. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989. The value of the labor both as income and a source of self-esteem has superseded the importance of reputation. While most of the people of Rquira learn pottery from their elders, not everyone becomes a potter. Using oral histories obtained from interviews, the stories and nostalgia from her subjects is a starting point for discovering the history of change within a society. There is still a lot of space for future researchliterallyas even the best sources presented here tended to focus on one particular geographic area. (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2000), 75. Vatican II asked the Catholic Churches around the world to take a more active role in practitioners' quotidian lives. The authors observation that religion is an important factor in the perpetuation of gender roles in Colombia is interesting compared to the other case studies from non-Catholic countries. Not only is his analysis interested in these differentiating factors, but he also notes the importance of defining artisan in the Hispanic context, in contrast to non-Iberian or Marxist characterizations because the artisan occupied a different social stratum in Latin America than his counterparts in Europe. Bolvar Bolvar, Jess. According to French and James, what Farnsworths work suggests for historians will require the use of different kinds of sources, tools, and questions. Given the importance of women to this industry, and in turn its importance within Colombias economy, womens newfound agency and self-worth may have profound effects on workplace structures moving forward. Her text delineates with charts the number of male and female workers over time within the industry and their participation in unions, though there is some discussion of the cultural attitudes towards the desirability of men over women as employees, and vice versa. Bolvar Bolvar, Jess. 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. The "M.R.S." Degree. On December 10, 1934 the Congress of Colombia presented a law to give women the right to study. Most cultures use a gender binary . The small industries and factories that opened in the late 1800s generally increased job opportunities for women because the demand was for unskilled labor that did not directly compete with the artisans., 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. 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. Even by focusing on women instead, I have had to be creative in my approach. He notes the geographical separation of these communities and the physical hazards from insects and tropical diseases, as well as the social and political reality of life as mean and frightening. These living conditions have not changed in over 100 years and indeed may be frightening to a foreign observer or even to someone from the urban and modern world of the cities of Colombia. Crdenas, Mauricio and Carlos E. Jurez. 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 Ceramics of Rquira, Colombia: Gender, Work, and Economic Change,1. The small industries and factories that opened in the late 1800s generally increased job opportunities for women because the demand was for unskilled labor that did not directly compete with the artisans.. She is able to make a connection between her specific subject matter and the larger history of working women, not just in Latin America but everywhere. . Equally important is the limited scope for examining participation. As a whole, the 1950's children were happier and healthier because they were always doing something that was challenging or social. Apparently, in Colombia during the 1950's, men were expected to take care of the family and protect family . war. At the same time, women still feel the pressures of their domestic roles, and unpaid caregiving labor in the home is a reason many do not remain employed on the flower farms for more than a few years at a time., According to Freidmann-Sanchez, when women take on paid work, they experience an elevation in status and feeling of self-worth. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. The Early Colombian Labor Movement: Artisans and Politics in Bogota, 1832-1919. In a meta-analysis of 17 studies of a wide variety of mental illnesses, Gove (1972) found consistently higher rates for women compared to men, which he attributed to traditional gender roles. My own search for additional sources on her yielded few titles, none of which were written later than 1988. I get my direct deposit every two weeks. This seems a departure from Farnsworth-Alvears finding of the double-voice among factory workers earlier. of a group (e.g., gender, race) occupying certain roles more often than members of other groups do, the behaviors usu-ally enacted within these roles influence the traits believed to be typical of the group. Bergquist, Labor in Latin America, 353. Specific Roles. Friedmann-Sanchez, Greta. July 14, 2013. I am reminded of Paul A. Cohens book. Pedraja Tomn, Ren de la. While there are some good historical studies on the subject, this work is supplemented by texts from anthropology and sociology. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997. For the people of La Chamba, the influence of capitalist expansion is one more example of power in a history of dominance by outsiders. Education for women was limited to the wealthy and they were only allowed to study until middle school in monastery under Roman Catholic education. Women Working: Comparative Perspectives in Developing Areas. in studying the role of women in Colombia and of more general interest for those concerned with the woman in Latin America-first, the intertwining of socioeconomic class and the "place" the woman occupies in society; second, the predominant values or perspectives on what role women should play; third, some political aspects of women's participation In academia, there tends to be a separation of womens studies from labor studies. 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. 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 4% of the total labor force participating in trade unions in 2016, and the role of unions is generally less important in comparison to the rest of Latin America. 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. This may be part of the explanation for the unevenness of sources on labor, and can be considered a reason to explore other aspects of Colombian history so as not to pigeonhole it any more than it already has been. This distinction separates the work of Farnsworth-Alvear from that of Duncan, Bergquist, or Sowell. These narratives provide a textured who and why for the what of history. The Development of the Colombian Labor Movement, Pedraja Tomn, Ren de la. Not only could women move away from traditional definitions of femininity in defending themselves, but they could also enjoy a new kind of flirtation without involvement. 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. The book, while probably accurate, is flat. The Development of the Colombian Labor Movement. 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 26 (1999): 134-163. 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. " (31) In La Chamba, as in Rquira, there are few choices for young women. As did Farnsworth-Alvear, French and James are careful to remind the reader that subjects are not just informants but story tellers. The historian has to see the context in which the story is told. Indeed, as I searched for sources I found many about women in Colombia that had nothing to do with labor, and vice versa. This paper underscores the essentially gendered nature of both war and peace. Gender roles are timeless stereotypes that belong in the 1950s, yet sixty years later they still exist.