Abstract

REMEDI, Fernando J.. From "Today's Domestic Service" to "Tomorrow's House Workers": State and Labour Laws of Domestic Service (Córdoba, Argentina, 1936). Hist. Soc. [online]. 2022, n.42, pp.37-59.  Epub Feb 25, 2022. ISSN 0121-8417.  https://doi.org/10.15446/hys.n42.91956.

Throughout the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, a process of increasing mercantilization of the domestic service took place in Córdoba (Argentina).

This process meant the destabilization of the traditional ways of regulating the service, which were based on paternalistic bonds, informal and private arrangements among the parties and reciprocal loyalties. Due to its specificities, such area of the workforce was excluded from the benefits and labour rights that the national and provincial States promoted for other workers. In the province of Córdoba, it was only in 1928 that a project for labour law regarding domestic service was presented. This failed project was updated by the provincial Executive Power in 1936. The aim of this paper is to examine this last initiative, outline its character, scope, meaning and underlying concepts. The stand and reasoning of newspapers from the city of Córdoba regarding such project are also analyzed. Documents from the provincial State are used, together with information provided by local newspapers La Voz del Interior, Los Principios and Córdoba.

Keywords : Domestic service; social inequality; labour laws; labour rights; labour standards; women's employment; Argentina; twentieth century.

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