The book begins with the Society of Artisans (La Sociedad de Artesanos) in 19th century Colombia, though who they are exactly is not fully explained. Bergquist, Charles. Consider making a donation! While there are some good historical studies on the subject, this work is supplemented by texts from anthropology and sociology. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997. . Crafts, Capitalism, and Women: The potters of La Chamba, Colombia. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997. 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. The state-owned National University of Colombia was the first higher education institution to allow female students. The image of American women in the 1950s was heavily shaped by popular culture: the ideal suburban housewife who cared for the home and children appeared frequently in women's magazines, in the movies and on television. 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. Most cultures use a gender binary . 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. While some research has been done within sociology and anthropology, historical research can contribute, too, by showing patterns over time rather than snapshots.. Bergquist also says that the traditional approach to labor that divides it into the two categories, rural (peasant) or industrial (modern proletariat), is inappropriate for Latin America; a better categorization would be to discuss labors role within any export production. This emphasis reveals his work as focused on economic structures. Sowell attempts to bring other elements into his work by pointing out that the growth of economic dependency on coffee in Colombia did not affect labor evenly in all geographic areas of the country. Bogot was still favorable to artisans and industry. In La Chamba, as in Rquira, there are few choices for young women. 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. Womens identities are still closely tied to their roles as wives or mothers, and the term las floristeras (the florists) is used pejoratively, implying her loose sexual morals. Womens growing economic autonomy is still a threat to traditional values. gender roles) and gender expression. Talking, Fighting, and Flirting: Workers Sociability in Medelln Textile Mills, 1935-1950. In The Gendered Worlds of Latin American Women Workers, edited by John D. French and Daniel James. Squaring the Circle: Womens Factory Labor, Gender Ideology, and Necessity. In The Gendered Worlds of Latin American Women Workers. Keremitsis, Dawn. were, where they come from, or what their lives were like inside and outside of the workplace. Together with Oakley 40 aos del voto de la mujer en Colombia. From Miss . Friedmann-Sanchez, Greta. 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. If we are studying all working people, then where are the women in Colombias 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. Feriva, Cali, 1997. Bergquist, Labor in Latin America, 353. Bergquist, Charles. Duncan, Crafts, Capitalism, and Women, 101. Farnsworth-Alvear shows how the experiences of women in the textile factories of Bogot were not so different from their counterparts elsewhere. [9], In the 1990s, Colombia enacted Ley 294 de 1996, in order to fight domestic violence. Variations or dissention among the ranks are never considered. He also takes the reader to a new geographic location in the port city of Barranquilla. After the devastation of the Great Depression and World War II, many Americans sought to build a peaceful and prosperous society. In La Chamba, there are more households headed by women than in other parts of Colombia (30% versus 5% in Rquira). Most of these households depend on the sale of ceramics for their entire income. 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. If success was linked to this manliness, where did women and their labor fit? This poverty is often the reason young women leave to pursue other paths, erod[ing] the future of the craft., The work of economic anthropologist Greta Friedmann-Sanchez reveals that women in Colombias floriculture industry are pushing the boundaries of sex roles even further than those in the factory setting. Thus, there may be a loss of cultural form in the name of progress, something that might not be visible in a non-gendered analysis. 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. Women belonging to indigenous groups were highly targeted by the Spanish colonizers during the colonial era. Arango, Luz G. Mujer, Religin, e Industria: Fabricato, 1923-1982. Keremitsis, Dawn. Men and women have had gendered roles in almost all societies throughout history; although these roles varied a great deal depending on the geographic location. Saether, Steiner. 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. In the space of the factory, these liaisons were less formal than traditional courtships. 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. The historian has to see the context in which the story is told. A 1989 book by sociologists Junsay and Heaton. In Latin America, factory work is a relatively new kind of labor; the majority of women work in the home and in service or informal sectors, areas that are frequently neglected by historians, other scholars, and officials alike. Dynamic of marriage based on male protection of women's honour. Most of the women who do work are related to the man who owns the shop. Womens work supports the mans, but is undervalued and often discounted. 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. The book, while probably accurate, is flat. Prosperity took an upswing and the traditional family unit set idealistic Americans apart from their Soviet counterparts. 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 analysis is not merely feminist, but humanist and personal. This roughly translates to, so what if it bothers anyone? Men were authoritative and had control over the . Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986), ix. 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.. French and James. Some indigenous groups such as the Wayuu hold a matriarchal society in which a woman's role is central and the most important for their society. Man is the head of the Family, Woman Runs the House. The use of oral testimony requires caution. With the introduction of mass production techniques, some worry that the traditional handcrafted techniques and styles will eventually be lost: As the economic momentum of mens workshops in town makes good incomes possible for young menfewer young women are obligated to learn their gender-specific version of the craft. Thus, there may be a loss of cultural form in the name of progress, something that might not be visible in a non-gendered analysis. is considered the major work in this genre, though David Sowell, in a later book on the same topic,, faults Urrutia for his Marxist perspective and scant attention to the social and cultural experience of the workers. Bergquist, Labor in Latin America, 318. 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. Labor History and its Challenges: Confessions of a Latin Americanist. American Historical Review (June 1993): 757-764. One individual woman does earn a special place in Colombias labor historiography: Mara Cano, the Socialist Revolutionary Partys most celebrated public speaker. Born to an upper class family, she developed a concern for the plight of the working poor. She then became a symbol of insurgent labor, a speaker capable of electrifying the crowds of workers who flocked to hear her passionate rhetoric. She only gets two-thirds of a paragraph and a footnote with a source, should you have an interest in reading more about her. 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. In the early twentieth century, the Catholic Church in Colombia was critical of industrialists that hired women to work for them. It shows the crucial role that oral testimony has played in rescuing the hidden voices suppressed in other types of historical sources. The individual life stories of a smaller group of women workers show us the complicated mixture of emotions that characterizes interpersonal relations, and by doing so breaks the implied homogeneity of pre-existing categories. This approach creates texts whose substance and focus stand in marked contrast to the work of Urrutia and others. Instead of a larger than life labor movement that brought great things for Colombias workers, her work shatters the myth of an all-male labor force, or that of a uniformly submissive, quiet, and virginal female labor force. Women in Colombian Organizations, 1900-1940: A Study in Changing Gender Roles. Journal of Womens History 2.1 (Spring 1990): 98-119. Duncans 2000 book focuses on women and child laborers rather than on their competition with men, as in his previous book. In La Chamba, there are more households headed by women than in other parts of Colombia (30% versus 5% in Rquira)., Most of these households depend on the sale of ceramics for their entire income. 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. Pedraja Tomn, Ren de la. In the space of the factory, these liaisons were less formal than traditional courtships. [18], Last edited on 23 February 2023, at 14:07, "Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%) | Data", "Labor force participation rate, female (% of female population ages 15-64) (Modeled ILO estimate) | Data", http://www.omct.org/files/2004/07/2409/eng_2003_04_colombia.pdf, "Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion in Colombia: Causes and Consequences", "With advances and setbacks, a year of struggle for women's rights", "Violence and discrimination against women in the armed conflict in Colombia", Consejeria Presidencial para la Equidad de la Mujer, Human Rights Watch - Women displaced by violence in Colombia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Women_in_Colombia&oldid=1141128931. Like what youve read? My own search for additional sources on her yielded few titles, none of which were written later than 1988. Again, the discussion is brief and the reference is the same used by Bergquist. She is . Bergquist, Labor in Latin America, 315. Each author relies on the system as a determining factor in workers identity formation and organizational interests, with little attention paid to other elements. . The interviews distinguish between mutual flirtations and sexual intimidation. 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. Since then, men have established workshops, sold their wares to wider markets in a more commercial fashion, and thus have been the primary beneficiaries of the economic development of crafts in Colombia. There is a shift in the view of pottery as craft to pottery as commodity, with a parallel shift from rural production to towns as centers of pottery making and a decline in the status of women from primary producers to assistants. The law generated controversy, as did any issue related to women's rights at the time. fall back into the same mold as the earliest publications examined here. Unions were generally looked down upon by employers in early twentieth century Colombia and most strikes were repressed or worse. The Early Colombian Labor Movement: Artisans and Politics in Bogota, 1832-1919. Saether, Steiner. Male soldiers had just returned home from war to see America "at the summit of the world" (Churchill). Some texts published in the 1980s (such as those by Dawn Keremitsis and Terry Jean Rosenberg) appear to have been ahead of their time, and, along with Tomn, could be considered pioneering work in feminist labor history in Colombia. If the mass of workers is involved, then the reader must assume that all individuals within that mass participated in the same way. The book then turns into a bunch of number-crunching and charts, and the conclusions are predictable: the more education the person has the better the job she is likely to get, a woman is more likely to work if she is single, and so on.