Valuing Women's Work: The
Evolution of Gender Roles and Labor in Y.P.F.
and Astra
1925-1950
Introduction
1925-1950
| After oil was discovered in Comodoro Rivadavia,
the demand for male labor greatly increased, which in turn fueled a huge
wave of immigration. While men constituted the largest population
in Comodoro and its oil company towns, women also played an integral role
in the establishment of communities, providing important services in both
the domestic and paid work sector. In Astra and Y.P.F., the patriarchal
nature of the oil industry and social structure resulted in the devaluation
of women's work, both literally in terms of money and in more intagible
terms of social capital. The period from 1925-1950 marked a key if
incomplete transition into the salaried labor industries of these two company
towns for women; it demonstrated not only how far they had come, but also
how far they had to go before having their work equally valued. |