Prolog Women in Society Influenced by the US

Puerto Rico is a sub-tropical island situated on the east edge of Great Antilles which consists of the islands Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The Atlantic Ocean is to the north, and the Caribbean Sea is to the south. It has an area of 8896 square kilometers, 180 kilometers from east to west and 60 kilometers from north to south. The population is approximately 3 and half million people. Meanwhile 2,730,000 Puerto Ricans live on the US mainland with 1,100,000 Puerto Ricans living in New York.

Puerto Ricans are mixed blooded people of Caribbean Indian, Spanish and African descent. We, as visitors, meet various people whose color and appearance are different. They keep their culture, both Spanish and Caribbean traditions. As well as speaking Spanish, the majority are Catholic. After the war between Spain and America in 1898, Puerto Rico became part of the US territory. Then in 1917 the US government granted citizenship to the Puerto Ricans. After some legal proceedings, Puerto Rico was granted the political status, of Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. With this political situation it's important to understand the influence of the US on Puerto Rican culture, as well as on the culture of the Spanish and the Caribbean. The people are always discussing the political status in the newspaper and in the media because it's the most important polemic in this society. But for Puerto Ricans, getting on an airplane to the US mainland is like getting on a public bus. We can now recognize Puerto Rico's special situation with the US, compared to other Latin American countries.

And it's a characteristic of Puerto Rican women's history that the Puerto Rican women's social position has changed drastically entering the 20th century in connection to the American society. At the same time, it means that there has been a risk of being involved in the debate about political status when the women are tackling sex discrimination in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican women always have had this conflict. We can say that Puerto Rican women's social position has been established based on Puerto Rican society on the one hand and the influence of being a part of US society on the other.

I. Social Change in the Puerto Rican Women's Historical Context and the Change of Women's Social Position

Tradition and Women

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Taino tribe was living in Puerto Rico hunting, fishing and cultivating tobacco, chili and cassava etc. The Spanish confirmed that some Taino tribes had women chiefs, but we don't know whether they held power equal to that of male chiefs. Furthermore, according to specialists we know that within tribal society cultivation was developed by women and women assisted in holy festival that involved ball-game ceremony. Therefore women represented important members in society. But this society disappeared rapidly after the arrival of the Spanish.

Christopher Columbus arrived in Puerto Rico in 1493 during his second voyage to the Americas. In 1508 the first colony was constructed in Puerto Rico and they started mining and farming using native labor. They also started to produce sugar. However many Natives died because of this slave labor and epidemics. The survivors fled to other islands and then the island's native population decreased rapidly. After the year 1510, the Spanish started to use slaves of African origin making up for the lack of native labor. But in the 1530's the minerals were almost exhausted and news about Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire spread to the island. Many colonists didn’t stop, but went to Peru or Mexico and the population of colony continued decreasing.

In the 17th century Holland and Britain started to attack the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean by hiring pirates. To avoid these pirates' attacks, the Spanish started a new system. They gathered together in Havana and then sailed in fleets to Spain and other destinations. For this reason, most ships stopped coming to Puerto Rico, so the economy became stagnant and the population kept declining. As a result, the total population of the island was less than ten thousand in 1700.

For these reasons, only a small number of Spanish soldiers and poor white farmers lived in Puerto Rico for a long time, although the Spanish had colonized the island from a very early date. But entering the 18^th century the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe had finished. Then Spain started to take an interest in the economic activities in the Americas again. When the British occupied Havana in Cuba in 1760, Spain paid attention to Puerto Rico and started to produce cane sugar for commercial trade. People started to migrate to Puerto Rico and the importation of slaves of African origin increased rapidly.

In the 19^th century, Latin American countries gained independence one after another and ultimately only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. As a result of losing the colonies, Spain reconstituted colonial policy regarding Puerto Rico and attempted to animate the economy, an area where Spain had paid little attention before. Spain freed the trade with foreign countries, constructed the port and increased the sugar production. Immigration increased and the class of small plantation proprietors was formed. As the result, the population of the islands swelled to one million at the end of the 19^th century from 160 thousand at the beginning of the 19^th century.

The women’s norm before the industrialized era was that women had had their place at home in the plantation system. Their world was at home and to be homely was a virtue of women. Furthermore, idleness meant proof of wealth and was a mark of ladies of high society. Through these influences the standards of Spanish high society were passed into Puerto Rican society, which emerged at the end of 19^th century. It’s difficult to find source material about these women before the 19^th century, although we know about some women, for example, woman who immigrated to Puerto Rico from Spain having to feed their family without a husband; or a slave woman who bought her own freedom through extra labor. Furthermore feminism spread among the masses of women after the latter half of 19^th century and 20^th century. Therefore we have to focus on the modern historical perspective when we discuss Puerto Rican women.

Also the suffragettes that emerged in the world in the 19^th and 20^th century are important when discussing feminism. Puerto Rican women gained suffrage early and female education was also widespread early. These are prominent features among Latin American countries and we have to pay attention to these.

The Spread of Female Education

Relating to female education in 19^th century in Puerto Rico, a famous example of equal opportunity in education between sexes was the establishment of a school for girls by Ms. Celestina Cordero. Also in the latter half of 19^th century, the Committee of Ladies of Honor of the Economical Society of Amigo de Puerto Rico (Junta de Damas de Honor de la Sociedad Economicca de Amigos del Pais) or the Association of Ladies for the Instruction of Women (Asociacion de Damas para la instruccion de la Mujer), these organizations endeavored to improve female education. But it was only after the 20^th century that the greater mass of women had come to be able to have an education. After 1900, the US authority started the policy that would spread public education and attempted to substantially improve the education system. With this policy, many children received education and the opportunity of getting education for women increased drastically. The number of women who could receive education was few in the 19^th century but it peaked sharply in the 20^th century. In 1903 the University of Puerto Rico was founded as a teacher training college and 74% of graduates from 1903 to 1923 were women. Many of them worked as teachers or nurses bearing the burden of improvement in education and public health on the island. Among these women, suffragist leaders emerged. Also we want to point out that women educated in the US become suffragist leaders.

The Struggle for Woman Suffrage

From the end of the 19^th century to the beginning of the 20^th, the suffrage movement flourished in Puerto Rico also. In 1929 women who could read and write were enfranchised and in 1935 all adult women were enfranchised. It's the second earliest in Latin American and the Caribbean area, following Ecuador where woman suffrage was established in 1929. This is quite early when compared to other countries.

In this process two important powers supported the suffrage movement. One was the feminist power of professional and upper class women who demanded the equal opportunity of education and woman suffrage. The other one was feminism of working class women. It's noteworthy that the women emancipation's power emerged from the labor movement that peaked in the beginning of the 20^th century in Puerto Rico and joined the suffrage movement. The effect was an increase in the momentum of the suffrage movement. The Labor movement put up women's emancipation as one of its important social reforms. Because the labor unions couldn't exist excluding women. There were many female workers in Puerto Rico in the textile and tobacco industries that were the main national industries at that time.

In Puerto Rico in the latter half of the 19^th century, the economical connection with the US became closer and after becoming a territory of the US in 1989, US capital increased the industrialization of the tobacco and sugar industries. As well, the textile industry expanded on the island with US capital that preferred the island’s cheap labor. So many women were employed in the island’s main industries, the Puerto Rican labor unions needed to organize female labor.

In 1898 the Regional Federation of Workers (Federacion Regional de Trabajadores), first organization with the character of a labor union, was founded. The next year they changed its name to Liberty Federation of Workers (Federacion Libre de Trabajadores) and restarted. This organization tried to organize and educate female workers actively to prevent the wage level of all workers from falling because of the low wages of female workers. The union made woman suffrage one of its demands as early as its fifth conference in 1908. This was first important claim of right to vote for women in Puerto Rico. In 1915, the Socialist Party was founded as the political section of this union and this party became the first party that demanded woman suffrage. This party expanded their power in the 1920s when the right to vote for women was argued actively. In the 1930s the party was able to push forward the suffrage movement from its position as one of the ruling parties in the coalition government.

As mentioned above, the labor movement’s history involved the women’s history and the labor movement supported the suffrage movement. The suffragists were assisting the conference of women laborers or women laborers became members of woman suffrage associations. The suffragists and women laborers were solidly supporting the right to vote for women movement. The suffrage movement had been flourishing with the increase of women laborers, the emergence of women activists in the labor movement, the expansion of women intellectuals and the activities of suffragists.

In 1917 Puerto Ricans were given US civil rights by the Jones Act. (An Act to provide a civil government for Puerto Rico and for other purposes). When US women were enfranchised in 1920, the hope that Puerto Rican women would also be able to have the right to vote arose from the Puerto Rican suffrage movement, because Puerto Rico was a US territory. In 1920 Genara Pagán as representative of Liberty Federation of Workers sued Local Board of Inscription (Junta Local de Inscripciones) demanding the right to vote but she lost the case. In 1924, Milagros Benet who was a member of the Suffragist Social League (Liga Social Sufragista) and the president of the Women’s Pan- American Association (Asociacion Pan-Americana de Mujeres) also sued the Board of Inscription. This case was also lost, but the cases were meaningful in revealing legal sex discrimination. After these cases Puerto Rican suffrage groups went to the US looking for support of their suffrage cause. The Suffragist Social League (P.R.) affiliated with the National Woman’s Party (Partido Nacional de Mujeres, US) and the Association of Puerto Rican Women Suffragists (Asociacion Puertorriquena de Mujeres Sufragistas, P.R.) affliated with the National Association of Women Voters (Asociacion Nacilnal de Mujres Votantes, US). They started to lobby for the US Congress. As a result of their lobbying, the US Congress proposed an amendment to a bill. But finally, at the request of US appointed Governor Towner, the legislative assembly of Puerto Rico recognized the right to vote for literate women to avoid the appearance of US government control of the suffrage issue in Puerto Rican politics. All women were enfranchised in 1935 at the intense demand of the labor movement. However after gaining the right to vote, the suffrage movement lost momentum and became stagnant. The activities of the female labor activists were also reduced with the closing of tobacco and textile factories due to the depression of 1930s.

Nevertheless outstanding women emerged from this suffrage movement, and they became harbingers of feminism in Puerto Rico. Many women left their names in history, for example, women who belonged to the working class played an active part as leaders in the labor movement then joined the suffrage movement. Upper class women who received education in the US played an active part in the suffrage movement as leaders. Among intellectual women, Ana Roque the famous leader of the suffrage movement, published many texts as a teacher in the end of the 19^th century to the beginning of the 20^th, and published the first magazines and newspapers for women in Puerto Rico. From the labor movement, Luisa Capetillo, who was the first woman to wear pants claimed women’s rights in the labor movement and published her thinking, was outstanding.

II. Industrialization and Women

Women and Society after Achieving Suffrage

After the granting of woman suffrage, we had to wait until the 1970s for the next wave of lively feminism. This new energetic feminism didn’t appear suddenly, but emerged as result of a steady increase in women’s participation in society after obtaining woman suffrage.

Women who started to enter the labor market in the 20^th century have changed their social role with the social transformation to a industrialized and consumer society. Some people saw this change as part of Americanization. This antipathy toward Americanization became linked to negative feelings toward changes in women’s social roles. It’s certain that Puerto Rican industrialization was influenced strongly by U.S. society. In the period of depression in the 1930s, the U.S. economic policy of public enterprise expansion was applied to Puerto Rico. In the 1940s, industrialization policy was started to reduce the tax rate to attract U.S. capital to Puerto Rico. With this system the Puerto Rican society industrialized rapidly and this caused increasing employment.

The Island's Relation to the US has had a Profound Impact on the Political Rights of Women in Puerto Rico

During the Second World War many Puerto Ricans did military service and this gave them preference for federal employment when they retired and scholarship for university study. This resulted in pushing the island’s modernization forward. Also in the 1940s, a Puerto Rican community formed on the US mainland, so new aspect was added to Puerto Rican history. These transformations brought about women’s role changes in the society.

In 1948, the first Puerto Rican governor was chosen by popular election. The government started a new industrialization policy and national economic growth increased rapidly. It was a time of rapid economic growth in the 1950s when the advance of industrialization caused rapid urbanization in Puerto Rico. After the 1960s, urban housing, car society and consumer society appeared. The consciousness of urban women changed. Women were being educated more highly, women’s opportunities for economic independence were increasing, and they started to work as professionals and also started to work in the political area. This transformation of female roles in the society converted the women’s identity from being associated only with the home to being a producer. This new female role and identity didn’t match the old role that was assigned to women in Spanish traditional culture. These transformations caused the fight against sex discrimination that was led by professional women in the 1960s. The protest resulted in the Civil Rights Commission in Puerto Rico starting to investigate the situation of sex discrimination in 1969. This was an important factor that caused the new feminism of the 1970s.

Feminism after the 1970s

Bibliography