(Anti)Feminist Representation in the Argentine Illustrated Press of the Early Twentieth Century: between disputes and appropriations

Abstract

One of the great political agendas of the early twentieth century was women's suffrage, which mobilized a series of activists, politicians and writers in both support and opposition. Using the press as a source, the objective of this work is to analyze part of the feminist trajectory based on publications from two Argentinian illustrated journals: PBT and Caras y Caretas. Moreover, other international publications made at the time are mentioned, as a considerable number of representations of the subject circulated in different countries. In this sense, we bring Roger Chartier's concept of representation, the ideas of circulation and cultural appropriation mentioned by Angela de Castro Gomes and Patricia Souza Hansen, as well as some considerations about the political conceptual history of Pierre Rosanvallon. Therefore, we seek to show how the debate on women's emancipation was permeated by disputes – which involved detractors of feminism and suffrage – but also by appropriations that militant women used to counter the anti-feminist discourses in vogue, especially in the press.