History of Women's Rights in Argentina

In Argentina, women were regarded as property of the men in their lives. The married women belonged to their husbands and the unmarried women belonged to their fathers. In these situations, these women were forced to obey the men otherwise they would suffer abuse. The families of women tried to get the daughters married very young. Sometimes they married as young as fifteen years old. They often would be married to men 15 to 30 years older than them. They had no legal rights at all and if they felt their husbands were insane, they could never prove it. And if they could prove it, they could leave but they were forced to leave their children behind with the man. Society did not support these women and they were left to fend for themselves. Often needing to eat from garbage cans and they often turned to prostitution.

Women were not allowed to work in government jobs or in community administrative jobs. These positions, if held by women, would help make them more powerful and influential. They were not even allowed to own their own land. If their husbands died, the women would need to remarry in order to live a decent life.

In the late eighteenth century, government supported immigration. This influx of immigrants played a big part of women's rights in Argentina. It helped open many doors for woman due to the influences of other cultures. Many French people immigrated to Argentina and brought their cultures and ideas with them. Women and men began socializing more frequently at gatherings and women became free to converse with men and other women. They often shared informal intellectual conversations, the enjoyed music together and poetry.

With immigration, Argentina fought for independence from Spain and during this time, women were empowered with running family businesses and estates so that the men could fight for independence. Women cooked for the military and provided nursing to those injured. This too helped in the fight for women's rights. Giving them the leverage they needed to enter society outside of their father's and husband's authority.

Women were not educated until the early nineteenth century. The nineteenth century civil laws classified women the same as they did young children and the mentally challenged. In 1905, the first schools to educate women and prepare them for college, were established. This was the real beginning of the feminist movement