Female Education in the Province of Concepción: Concepción and Lota. Between the Feminine Ideal, Primary Education and Industrial Paternalism, 1900-1930

Abstract

This work describes the development and incorporation of the female population into educational establishments in two dissimilar spaces in the province of Concepción: the city of Concepción and the mining town of Lota. It highlights the existing educational institutions; social problems; the role of industrial paternalism in Lota and its relationship with female education; the school aid practices developed for the primary schools of Concepción; an approach to the promotion of female secondary education for that city, and how the ideal of being a woman was linked to philanthropic practices. The documentary corpus used for this research corresponds to the newspaper El Sur de Concepción, the newspaper La Opinión de Lota, La Esmeralda de Coronel, the Municipal Fund of Concepción, a commemorative publication of the 50 years of the Amunátegui Decree and guides to the province of Concepción on the occasion of the celebration of the first national centenary, preserved in the Historical Archive of Concepción. It is necessary to point out the absence of works in the historical discipline that address the problem of female education in the province. Given the exploratory nature of this article, it is hoped to contribute to the development of the history of female education in a local space.