Women & Work:  The Case of Y.P.F. v. Astra

Part IV:  I ntergenerational Reflections:  A Quarter Century of Women's Progress

    Women living in the company towns of Astra and Y.P.F. from 1925 to 1950 witnessed significant transformations in gender roles in the family and the workplace.  This shift in the trayectoria femenina, which took place across generations, can be best observed in the personal narratives of those who lived  and worked in the towns during the time period, and whose lives were affected by the changing social, economic, and political culture of Argentine society.      

"Ella en la casa, nada mas"
   
 

 Three Generations: Elsa Babir and Family
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    The stories of second generation women living in Astra and Y.P.F. are for the most part different than that of their immigrant mothers.  For many first generation women of the company towns, their motives for immigration were based more on the desire to reunite the family unit than to find employment, and so usually followed the establishment of the husband or father in the oil industry.  The presence of women, both in the domestic sphere and the labor market, was to mediate the needs of the (male) working population, and to assure the subsistence of their families amid the harsh conditions of country life in the early company towns.




"[Mi mamá] era ama de casa.  Afuera de la casa si? No, no.  Ella en la casa, nada mas."
Elsa B., 1-9-03, Astra
  
Elsa Babir

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Elsa B.'s story is demonstrative of this generational shift.  While her mother was, as she says, confined to the household, Elsa had the chance to attend secondary school, and she eventually gained work as a maid in Astra.  Three generations of her family, including her mother, are pictured above.


 "My mother was a housewife.  [Did she work] outside of the house?  No, no.  Her place was only in the home."
    "A lot of changes"

Ivanka P. faced a different situation. Although a first generation Bulgarian immigrant, she did not move to Y.P.F. until  1938 and married one year later at the age of 18.   She faced many of the problems of older first generation immigrant women in entering the labor market, including the language barrier, but also arrived at a time when there was more work opportunity for women in general.  She was able to eventually take classes and find work as a seamstress in the company town, but also comments on the improvements in women's lives since her arrival:




Woman and Son in Astra





"Me, since I came here, a lot of changes, a lot of changes, more commodities...a lot better for the housewives, they almost don't do any work...Now is a better life."
Y.P.F., 1-17-01

   
     F rom 1919 to 1945, there was an 18.1% increase in the number of women employed in Astra relative to male workers, and a similar growth pattern also occurred in Y.P.F.  And after 1946, this number increased at an even greater rate.  No longer relegated to the informal, "domestic" economy, women had much greater opportunity to have their work valued monetarily.  The contrast between Augusta M. (first generation German Immigrant, Astra)'s work life and her mother's story is a good example of the doors that were opened to women across generations. Her mother worked as a cook for the company-owned "La Maquina" ranch in Astra (for very little pay in comparison to her men in her same position), while Augusta was able to earn more money as a receptionist just a few decades later.




"We helped do the work, because [our] mother worked...she really did everything...My mother had to do the cooking, washing."

  "Ayudamos a trabajar, porque mamá trabajó...todas las cosas lo hacía ella...Mamá tenía que cocinar, tenía que lavar."
Augusta M., 1-9-03, Astra.



"Mamá y Papá"

    But the entrance of women into the paid work force was not always liberating, because the basic social structure that mandated all household work to women  and devalued their reproductive and domestic labor remained intact.  Women who entered the labor market, either by necessity or by choice, were often confronted with a notorious 'double shift' after a hard day of work in the company town's administrative or domestic services.  Augusta M. was widowed and left to support herself and her children in Astra.  Consequently, the company employed her, as they did with other women in her circumstances, in order to allow her family to stay in the company housing.  Her account of her life as a working mother in Astra highlight the difficulties faced by many working women:




"Y venir a mis casa, tenía el que ya tiene, a ver 49 años, [tenía que ir] a la escuela, atender a la casa, darle de comer, lavar, todo esto...atender la casa después de la hora del trabajo.  Y por allí me acostaba a la una o a las dos de la mañana, para dejarlo todo listo...cuando uno tiene que hacer papa...mama y papa y papa y mama...es un momento muy difícil...pero hay que hacerlo."
1-9-03, Astra


  Augusta Miehler
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Central Office: Augusta's Workplace, Astra
"Coming home, with my son at home (who now is 49 years old), [I had to] go to school, do all the housework, feed everybody, do the washing, everything...I had to do the housework after a whole day of work.  Because of this I wouldn't get to sleep until one or two in the morning, in order to have everything ready [for the next day]...[W]hen you have to be the father...both the mother and father...it is really difficult, but you just have to do it."