The Mutualist Awakening in Concepción: the case of the " Enlightenment of Women" (1925-1940)

Abstract

The study of Mutual Aid Societies (from Spanish: Sociedades de Socorros Mutuos) constitutes understanding the role that these collectivities established from their creation, cooperation, and the resignification of their social spaces. From their trajectories, continuities and identities, mutual societies allowed us to understand that they can be studied from different perspectives. Accordingly, the purpose of the study was to understand women's mutual organizations from the point of view of welfare, education, and progress in the daily lives of the women who are members of these mutual associative spaces. In order to respond to this, the mutual "Ilustración de la Mujer" in the city of Concepción, between 1925-1940 was investigated. It was hypothesized that the first women's mutuals implied new forms of sociocultural development for the mutual members during the first half of the 20th century, providing them with welfare, education, progress and culture on a daily basis. As a result of the study, it was possible to understand how these mutual societies were pioneers in informal and formal social organizations, and that in one way or another, the women's mutual societies provided the participating somen a position in the public sphere. In short, they contributed to the welfare and cultural progress of the women who were members of these mutual societies, who also made various efforts to expand their radius of action, with the aim of influencing the daily lives of other women in the city in the same way, regardless of their associative links.