Women Workers In Peru

INTRODUCTION

Geographically, Peru is divided into three well-defined and distinct regions: the coastal region with its expanse of arid land cut transversely by small, narrow, green valleys-the agricultural and petroleum zone; the "sierra" or mountainous region, with its plateaus and fertile valleys, extending the length of the country-the zone of mines, cattle, and agriculture; and the selva (or "montaña," as the Peruvians call it), with its large rivers, virgin forests which form an immense green sea, tropical and unhealthy-the rubber and forestal zone. Peru is larger in area than Texas, California, and Michigan combined, and ranks third in size among the nations of South America.

The total population in 1940 was 7,023,111, according to the census taken at that time. This number includes an estimated 350,000 living in the tropical jungle or selva who could not be reached by the census takers. The estimate was based on reports from military and police officers, teachers, missionaries, and explorers whose reports were examined and verified by special agents and inspectors of the Census Department. Approximately 71⁄2 percent of the 6,207,967 actually counted are included in the total to make up for omissions.

The racial characteristics of the population make-up are significant in an interpretation of the employment statistics: 53 percent are white and mestizo (mixed white and Indian), 46 percent are Indian (descendants of the Incas and the Aymarás).

Indians and mestizos make up the majority of those employed in agriculture, in which more than half of the total population gainfully employed are working. They are peons on the large estancias; they tend the flocks; often they own small pieces of land which they cultivate for food for themselves and their animals, while they do other work for cash wages.

Indians comprise the large body of workers in the metal mines which, with petroleum, provide the most important exports of Peru. Indians and mestizos make up a large percentage of those employed in textiles, the manufacturing industry having the largest employment, for included by the 1940 Census in those gainfully employed in textiles are the hundreds who work at their traditional skill of weaving in their homes.

The economic-social history of Peru is important in understanding Peru today. In the Inca period, the economic-social organization was

communal in character, with the work and goods divided proportionally among the inhabitants. In the Spanish colonial period (which lasted three and a half centuries) a new society diametrically opposed to the former was established, this one based on private property, with a feudal system for agriculture, and introducing a religion, a language, and social customs wholly different from those which the inhabitants had known before. Then the Republic was established in 1821, with its new political organization, bringing years of restlessness and change. The public buildings of Peru, the houses, the industries, the culture of the people reflect these three strains in the nation's history: that is, the Inca, the Spanish colonial, and the modern.

NUMBER OF EMPLOYED WOMEN

Until the last 10 or 15 years, work outside the home was not generally accepted for women of families in the middle and higher economic brackets and for those with higher education. However, women were teachers long before 1930, and more than 35 years ago a few young women started to work in offices.

The increasing number of girls and young women in schools, particularly in special and vocational courses, in colleges and in the universities, indicates a change in attitude toward women's paid employment. The number of female students increased from 218,000 in 1940 to 285,941 in 1942. This increase gains importance upon analysis: in 1941, 4.3 percent of the total number of women students were in schools and classes above the primary grades; in 1942 the percentage of the total increased to 5.1 percent. Of this number who were in schools above the primary grades, 5.3 were in special or advanced courses or in the university in 1941; this percentage increased to 6.7 in 1942. These percentages, although not large, show a growing tendency of young women in Peru to prepare themselves for employment, for special, advanced, and university courses are taken as preparation for jobs.

Women belonging to the lower income classes have had no choice but to earn what they could for themselves and their families. These women, many of them the sole support of their children, still form the largest part of all gainfully employed women today.

Females comprise approximately 51 percent of the total population of Peru, and 35 percent of the total number gainfully employed. Of the total female population, 28 percent are gainfully employed, while of the total male population, 52 percent are gainfully employed.

Agriculture, Cattle Raising

Peru is chiefly an agricultural country, and more than half of all women and girls gainfully employed are in agriculture and cattle raising; in agriculture they make up 28 percent of the total number. The census report shows women working in the cultivation of cotton, rice, garden products, potatoes, and other crops. In cattle raising more women than men are employed; they comprise 52 percent of the total and 13 percent of the managers or owners. This does not mean that women are working in a modern large-scale cattle-raising industry; on the contrary, the great majority of them watch the cattle and sheep in the open pastures and do the milking and other work which is part of the industry. The women who are wage earners on the farms, in cattle raising, are very largely Indian and mestizo.

Manufacturing has become increasingly important in the domestic economy of Peru in the last 12 years. The manufacture of consumers' goods for the domestic market was given new impetus when importations from other parts of the world became almost impossible because of the Second World War. The most important of the manufacturing industries are textiles, foodstuffs, beverages, wearing apparel, leather goods, shoes, cement, and lumber.

Table I.-Gainfully Employed Persons, by Industry and Sex, Peru, 19401

1 Source: Peru Census of Population and Occupation, 1940, pp. CLXXX, 272 ff. 2 These are persons with professional degrees who are practicing their professions independently. The census does not reveal the number of persons practicing in professions who are employed by commercial and manufacturing firms and by the Government.

Manufacturing is second to agriculture in importance in the employment of women. About one-fourth of all employed women are in manufacturing. The largest numbers of women are employed in textiles, where they make up 83 percent of the total number of workers. Not all of the women employed in the manufacture of textiles

1 In cotton mills visited in Lima, women made up a small percentage of the total number employed. Plant managers said they were replacing women with men as fast as possible.

are found in factories, however, for classified as part of the textile industry are those women who weave materials, ponchos, blankets on their hand looms in their homes, and who spin their own yarn.? Self-employed home industry workers appear in other industries, such as ceramics and jewelry, as well as in textiles.

Offices and Stores

The number of young women working in offices and stores has steadily increased, particularly in recent years. The membership of women in two organizations of commercial employees is a good illustration. The Society of Women Commercial Employees, organized in 1917 with 10 members, after 6 years had only 35. The next year the membership increased to 100; recently 500 members were reported. Another organization called the Society of Clerical Employees of Peru had a membership of 7,000 men and women; more than 1,000 of the members were women.

According to the census, women comprised almost a third of the total employment in 1940 in commercial, financial, and insurance companies. An analysis of employment by occupation shows that 1,001 women were employed in banks, insurance companies, and other offices; of the remaining 35,100 the largest numbers were employed in

Table II.-Total Employment and Number and Percent of Women in Service Industries, Peru, 1940 1

Source: Peru Census of Population and Occupation, 1940, pp. 272 ff.

1 These are persons with professional degrees who are practicing their professions independently. The census does not reveal the number of persons practicing in professions who are employed by commercial and manufacturing firms and by the Government.

? Women in interior towns and in the rural areas twist yarn on bobbins as they watch the flocks, sit in the market places, or walk along the streets and roads.