Equality, Politics and Education. Gender Essays by 19th Century Teachers in Chile

Abstract

In this article we analyze a series of texts that we define as gender essays that were written by late 19th century teachers in Chile. Antonia Tarragó and Eduvigis Casanova were part of a women’s movement that from the 1870s began to demand equality. In this case, they argued in favor of an egalitarian education in the conjuncture of debates between liberals and conservatives for the construction of the nation-state. Considering feminist theory, we propose that it is necessary to recognize teachers as agents in the social, cultural and political contingency of the second half of the 19th century. In the gender essays analyzed, the teachers articulated and resignified historical and ethical frameworks that were based on enlightened perspectives that postulated the equality of souls and a thought sustained in regeneration. In this exercise, they promoted forms of self-determination and emancipation, valuing secondary and higher education as devices to challenge the segregated forms of gender built in the “male republic”.