User:Swiftluvr222/Feminism in Argentina

Working Class Argentinian Women
One of the main running themes of Argentinian feminism has been the female industrial working class and their growth. The validity of the female working class of Argentina was something that most, if not all, Argentine feminists agreed on, therefore making them one of the bases of the Argentine feminist movement. Working class women were some of the first women in Argentina to fight against the men who wanted to limit them. Many of them did this by joining neighborhood associations and unions in order to fight for improved living and working conditions. These organizations made huge advancements in Argentinian feminism as it showed that these women were not submissive and were going to fight for what they believed in.

The Twentieth Century in Relation to the Female Workforce
Women in Argentina were first sought out as workers because they were, essentially, the most expendable. A large part of the reason women were sent to work in factories and the like was because they were seen as calm, cheap, and trustworthy. This, along with women becoming more and more educated, helped shine a light on women and the issues they faced in both the workplace and in their daily lives.

As the fight for working class women grew throughout Argentina, Congress began to pass laws and regulations that specifically attended to the demands from female workers. While this was a great start, there were some flaws within these regulations. It seemed as if Congress was so focused on attending to the demands of female labor unions, they did not take the necessary time to consider what working women actually needed in the day-to-day workforce. Additionally, after these regulations were put into place, it was up to many women to be sure that the businesses that employed women were following these regulations, and many times there was cause for complaint upon investigation.

At the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th, men outnumbered women in the workforce more than two times over. The only jobs that women outnumbered men in were those of domestic servants and teachers. Because women were outnumbered so badly, this led many people to believe this held restrictions against women, as the lack of job opportunities left them unfairly dependent on men. Additionally, the fact that there was such a large population of female domestic servants and teachers raised the issue of women in the workforce to feminists and reformers. This sudden interest caused the female workforce and feminist movement to grow. Throughout the 1890s, women began to pursue higher education which led to more women getting jobs like doctors. While the number of women in this profession was still small compared to the number of men, the fact that women were breaking into these industries made many of them want to help other women. Many of them experienced discrimination from men because of their gender, as many men believed that women were too emotional to be successful in these types of professions. Therefore, many of these women with higher paying jobs, along with upper class/wealthy women, created organizations such as the National Council of Women and the Socialist Women's Center in order to help working class women fight for their rights.