Female Teachers in the Public Schools of Montevideo. Feminization, Work and Livelihood Strategies (1865-1890)

Abstract

During the second half of the 19th century, teaching became a valid labor option for women in Montevideo, driven by discourses and practices promoted by educational authorities. In a labor context that excluded women and relegated them to unpaid domestic work, the feminization of teaching allowed some women to enter the labor market as teachers. However, their working conditions were marked by the precariousness and instability of their income, forcing them to implement various strategies to sustain their subsistence and that of their families. This article aims to analyze the arguments of school authorities to justify female participation in the teaching profession and the gender pay gap, as well as the strategies employed by female teachers to cope with economic instability.

The research is framed within a social history of labor with a gender perspective, focusing on female teachers as workers. Through the analysis of diverse sources, it seeks to answer questions about the discourses and practices that led to the feminization of the teaching profession, the justification of the salary gap by the authorities, the impact of salary instability on female workers and their families, and the strategies adopted by female teachers to counteract the lack of income. It also examines how they sustained their lives after reaching retirement.

Uruguayan historiography has dealt extensively with primary education in the second half of the nineteenth century, but has ignored the living and working conditions of female teachers. This study dialogues with a regional historiography that has problematized these issues, exploring the consequences of the feminization of the teaching profession and the working conditions of female teachers.