Abstract

BRACAMONTE, Lucia. Benefactor Women in Southwestern Buenos Aires: the Case of Child Board of Bahía Blanca, 1906-1931. Historelo.rev.hist.reg.local [online]. 2012, vol.4, n.7, pp.48-84. ISSN 2145-132X.

The care of minors considered to be in moral and material hazard in Argentina in early XXth century is often left in charge of charity institutions, in which benefactor women obtain a special leading role. The aim of this paper is to identify the duties assumed by women in emergence and growth period of Bahia Blanca's Child Board, portraying them in the framework of the relationships they establish with people close to them, and in the gender representation that emerge from those relationships. Based on experiences and speeches related to the mentioned case, it is worth considering how the places held by benefactor women are defined regarding men from their social circle, and other women from different occupations and social strata, who get involved with the institution such as wet nurses and nuns. In this paper, it is explained that the performance of promoters of these entrepreneurship represents -in many ways- a transgression of prevailing models of femininity. Nevertheless, this performance is associated by both women and men with their activities with those dominant assumptions.

Keywords : women; charity; Child Board; Bahia Blanca.

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