The Transitions of Women’s Role in the Society

From the field of time, females have been considered the inferior sex. They have been given titles such as, fragile, delicate, weak beings when in fact women have proved that they are certainly equal as men, if not stronger. Child repulse is one physical aspect of their strengths that women run short while others constitute taking over the duties of their male counterparts while they fought in the major wars for the country. Yet history hardly gave women credit for their accomplishments in the nineteenth and early 20th century.When history did give the female sex a junction, it consisted of their participation in the traditionalistic components cast upon them as wives and then mothers. extraneous of this realm, womens activities were considered unusual or accidental. This was certainly the case with Latin America, a complex, diverse, stratified region composed of m any(prenominal) an(prenominal) different nations. It seems appropriate at this time to undertake a search of the history of Mexico in devote to probe the little cognise mysteries of the womens actual role in society. My search will revolve around the regime of Porfirio Diaz, commonly known as the Porfiriato.Women of every class and background were involved in many diverse undertakings during that period. Vivian V eitherens in her book, Working Women in Mexico during the Porfiriato depicted this picture well. She discussed the focal ratio and pose class women briefly so that a rounded good deal of womens activities can be understood. Her book concentrated around the theme of Mexican women working in the stuff and cigar-making factories from 1880 1910. She stressed how their traditional roles went by means of a great transition in response to the rise of industrialism and the labor policies of the Diaz regime.Prior the industrial Revolution, women played a direct role in the economy and in the development of society. Most of the population lived on pear-shaped estates or haciendas on which all production took place for each family. Women worked alongside men in the fields or in home enterprises in addition to their economic contribution, women as well as undertook the task of bearing and raising a large family. With the Industrial Revolution came many changes in economics, politics, society, and in the role of women. The production of many necessities shifted out of the home and into the factories. some(prenominal) families moved to urban areas to better their economic experimental condition and to become a part of the impudently society. The government practiced laissez faire (no regulation of the business sector) which allowed the pulverisation owners to abuse their workers to take in great profits. The working class was most affected by the Industrial Revolution. Upper and middle class women found themselves with considerable time on their hands since the new economy assumed the production of many kinsfolk items. While the upper-class women busied t hemselves with their looks and entertainment, the middle-class women developed the composition of motherhood as a full-time occupation.These women retreated from their previous roles and public life by totally centering their lives around their husband and children. This change set a pattern of the ideal activities for women being centered around the home and family. Gradually, however, round upper and middle class women found this rather narrow thought of their roles too rigid and restrictive, and they became involved in many activities in coiffure to open educational and occupational opportunities for women. It was the Diaz government and the positivist view that allowed the women to organise themselves and grow both mentally and socially.As Vallens described it, The positivist suppositions rough education had a profound effect on Mexican women of the middle sectors, Juarez and his associates offered women an education and a chance to work outside the home. They looked to the women of the middle sectors as potential teachers. Yucatan, for example, became one of the first states to make secondary education gettable to women. As teachers, the Mexican women served not only as agents of literacy, but also as instigators of change and advocates of new ideas.The positivists had originally instituted education to bring abidance nevertheless, educated women seemed to bring exactly the opposite. The arrive of women attending both primary feather and secondary schools steadily increased. Schools for women were established in the Federal District as well as in leading provincial cities. Women began to enter the belief profession in ever increasing numbers. By 1895, 51. 3% of all the teachers were women and by 1910 this figure had raised to 64. 4%. A select number of women went on to get higher education and became professionals such as lawyers and doctors.Vallens indicated that such women included Maria Asuncion Sandoval de Zarco and Matilda Montoya. They not only tested their traditional role but also pioneered a path for others to follow. The get-class women of Mexico face up an entirely different type of change in their pattern of living. The lower class women moved to the urban surroundings to better their economic status with their families. Forced to work in the factories to support their families, these women enlarged their circle of companionship and this helped them become aware of the communality of the problems faced by working women.This shift had a tremendous impact because the urban life had the effect of broadening their scope and developing their militancy. Working class women began to thrust aside their earlier attitudes of passive voice submission and became involved in group activities and organizations. Vallens portrays their struggle in the textile and cigar-making factories. Their docile attitude in the beginning allowed the milling machinery owners to take favour of them and abuse their condition terribly . The owners hired women so they can reap more than profits by paying them less than men.For example, the Cocolapam textile factory in 1893 employed 90 men, 240 women, and 15 children. Wages varied by factory, by sex, and by age. Conditions under which they worked were horrible and unsanitary. Even more women worked in the cigar-making factories, so subject to higher percentage of abuse. The Mexican women cigar-makers worked fourteen to fifteen hours per daylight with each woman searched for factory products before she went home. They too worked in insanitary atmosphere with low roofs and no ventilation.Originally, upon first arriving from the rural areas, they accepted any salary or condition of work set by the factory owners of both industries without any protest. With time, however, Vallens indicates that their traditional outlook was slowly discarded aft(prenominal) the women were exposed to economic self-dependence and the spirit of growing militancy among their fellow fac tory workers. (38) They accomplished that they could challenge and protest many of the owners actions. Their concept of their proper role changed and they responded to their pressures by organizing, protesting, and striking.A number of socialists and anarchists helped give leading to these early organizations. Their political philosophy stressed, among other points, the pauperisation for inclusion of women in all levels of activity. For example, Santiago Villanueva an anarchist stressed the theme of womens rights and responsibilities both in Mexican society and within the labor movement. This encouragement allowed women to actively participate in meetings of the labor movement. As a result, women like Carmen Huerta became gravid labor leaders and were elected president of the Congress of workers.Vallens book was fire and easy to follow. She clearly stated her point and used hard establish from her sources to prove that point. Her use of statistics made her point all the more presumptive and very realistic. What was shocking to me was that she was able to retrieve such statistics and stories of womens leading when history gave them a silent voice. Women, of that era, in fact saw the need for organization and so they played a role in such a development as a result of their tragic experiences.Many leaders rose to the occasion and served as an inspiration they laid the al-Qaeda for working womens acceptance into more active and public roles. They erudite their lesson well that only through collective action could change be made. Such leadership and action cannot be considered accidental or inconsequential as societies of the past have labeled women heroes. Vallens, through her clear-cut appearance of writing, showed the reader that women in Mexico did not have a quite voice as history has written.They possessed a loud voice and when they realized they did, they used it Vallens theme of the changing role of women and their growing level of sentience can be best described by Josefina Reyes in La Mujer en el hogar y en la sociedad, Happily we function to a generation that has the good fortune to conceive the sublime idea of the emancipation of woman, one of the greatest steps that humanity has taken along the broad path of progress. We are now no longer in the error of believing that woman was made only for the home and family.