Argentine Economy in 1919
“We’re Still Crying for Argentina, Thanks to Perónism” by the Foundation for Economic Education
In the year 1919 Argentina was coming out of an economic low point which quickly shifts into a burst of quite stark economic growth. Though there are many reasons for this quick shift some of the biggest include large amounts of urbanization, immigration, and the push for women’s rights. With the large emergence of socio-political movements, in particular women’s rights, this encouraged immigration even more. These changes caused exponential economic growth in Argentina. Argentina had the highest urbanization, from 40% to 60% urbanization from the years 1910-1940, highest rates of education, and the highest GDP per capita out of any country in South and Latin America. Along with these changes we can observe that women were becoming more prominent in the workforce as well. With the women’s rights movements becoming more prominent in the Argentine community, not just from native Argentines but from migrants as well, this push gave women more opportunities to join into the workforce. Although there were still inequalities in the workforce, such as pay differences, women’s entrance into the workforce played a significant role in the country’s jump in GDP per capita. With a now booming economy, comparatively, Argentina continues to make economic advancements. Argentina enacted a Minimum Wage Law in 1918 to protect both home workers and industrial workers hourly wages. This wage was set from company to company and varied. This was one of the first instances, especially in southern in Latin America, where we witness wage assurance and the protection of a minimum hourly payment. In fact, there is a set 300 peso penalty if the minimum wage is not met. Even with the inequality in payment between genders and relating factors, a promised minimum wage and a growing workforce in Argentina allowed for the quality of life for the average citizen to improve exponentially.
The Play’s Response
“Women doing the low-skilled work of packaging cigarettes in a tobacco factory,” by The Activist History Review
In the play, La Doctora de Lantera a few examples of Argentina’s economic growth are beginning to be noticed. We see aspects such as immigration, women’s rights, and women in the workforce emphasized throughout this play. We indirectly see how playwrights begin to realize the wage inequality in Argentina at the time. Juliana notices that women are stereotypically suited for jobs such as telephone operators, teachers, seamstresses, and stenographers. She asks why they cannot be senators, deputies, and other military careers which she claims could be done better than men. Although this play has very strong political ties especially in the realm of women’s rights, jobs that are traditionally dominated by women are on average lower-paying than jobs traditionally dominated by men. This is most likely an intentional aspect of the jobs listed, as the laws set in place to protect the minimum wage in Argentina were enacted in 1918. This play was written in 1919, so it would have been easy to identify the wage indifference after this law was put into place. While this is the main economic factor that is addressed, we do see the beginnings of immigration mentioned as well. Within the play, Antonio talks about how his wife has recently become interested in the women’s rights movement. This statement addresses immigration’s impact on the women’s rights movement. Many immigrants from countries such as Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, and Poland were looking to join one of the many movements spreading to Argentina at the time. They needed to find jobs in Argentina which promoted economic growth. Although it is not at the immediate forefront in the play, we can see how some of the economic effects are displayed throughout different aspects of La Doctora de Lantera.