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April 17, 2006
Women's Work
This is the project I am attempting for one of my classes. Suprisingly, I was able to find quite a bit of work on Latina women, specifically those that worked in the factories in the early 19th century, which is near to my heart as that was my grandmother's fate. Despite being the rare (female) high school graduate in her family, once she came to Nueva York, her training as a stenographer and book keeper was stilted because "her English just wasn't good enough". Ah...yet another reason why I think that I was destined to be a rhetorician. Exactly how much language does it take to do book keeping? But I digress... What follows is the work I am now actually thinking of pursuing with more scholarly vigor. Who said dissertation? I'm just expressing an interest is all.
When we think of societal contributions made by women, segregated images of family, motherhood, and domesticity are recalled with nostalgic warmth. Feminism conjures up another exclusionary image; White women working towards temperance and suffrage, and the overall liberation of their sisters. Seldom are these versions of womanhood expanded to include women of color, or the various contributions (fiscally, culturally, and politically) that they have made by assuming what were (and in some instances still are) considered by some to be less feminine, or less traditional roles. To that end, this paper will explore the ways in which Puerto Rican women entered the workforce during the late 19th and early 20th centuries respectively, why they were compelled to enter this male dominated arena in the first place, and how said involvement ultimately led to feminist awakenings and the Latina suffrage movement. By charting the migration pattern of Puerto Ricans and the political promises made to native islanders which initiated (what is known as) the great migration for Puerto Ricans, this paper will shed light on the pivotal roles that Boricua women played in maintaining the family structure while gaining independence through work, suffrage movements, and the fight for unionization for female factory employees. Incorporating the work done on Luisa Capetillo, it is my intention to argue that despite the patriarchal underpinnings of Latino culture, these women demonstrated agency in a way that was unique to the current historical understandings of feminism as it occurred in the early 19th and 20th centuries.
Wish me luck!
Posted by dvaldesd at April 17, 2006 01:59 PM