The formation of the School of Social Service in the province of Cautín: gender, modernization and hygiene

Abstract

The School of Social Service was established in the city of Temuco, then Cautín Province, in 1942, under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Education, following the model implemented in Santiago in 1925; the degree awarded the title of Social Assistant after three years of study, being exclusively oriented to the training of women. This article explores the training context of the School of Social Service, investigating who were the first women to enter the School, the training they received and the influence of a modernizing and hygienic vision, as well as the gender assumptions that shaped the degree. In a context where the province of Cautín already saw a consolidation of the installation of the Chilean State in the Mapuche territory, we propose that social workers sought to respond to the needs of the modernizing project of the governments of the time, which included social assistance from the application of scientific and rational methods to respond to social and health problems such as poverty, illiteracy or alcoholism. For the development of this article we worked with a content analysis methodology, based on the review of a documentary corpus of the Diario Austral de Temuco from the years 1942 to 1951.