Engendering Argentine History: A Historiographical Review of Recent Gender-Based Histories of Women during the National Period

Abstract

As Dora Barrancos pointed out in her 2004 state-of-the-field essay, since theearly twentieth century, a small number of Argentine scholars have dedicatedthemselves to writing histories about women.3 The 1980s witnessed a significantincrease in female-focused scholarship across the world; and Argentina, especiallyafter the fall of the military dictatorship in 1983, was no exception. In Argentina,as elsewhere in Latin America, scholars from other social science disciplineswere among the first to employ gender-based analysis.4 By the end of the decade,feminist scholars in Argentina founded the first interdisciplinary institutes ofwomen’s studies in national universities.5 And during the early 1990s, scholars ata number of these institutes began to publish interdisciplinary feminist journalsincluding La Alijaba: Segunda Epóca, Mora, and Zona Franca.6 In 1991, theUniversidad de Luján hosted the first academic meeting focused squarely onwomen’s history. The following year, historians at the Universidad de BuenosAires hosted the second iteration of this workshop, adding gender into the newtitle, “II Jornadas de Historia de las Mujeres y Estudios de Género.”7 Ever since,a growing number of (primarily Argentine) historians have met at this annualconference to present new research on women and gender.