Migrant women, conventillos, and social conflict in the consolidation of a space of contrasts. Buenos Aires (1870-1915)

Abstract

In the late nineteenth to early twentieth century context of an agro-exporting Argentina under the power of the landowning elites, the city of Buenos Aires sees European migration unfold in a space of contrasts that impacts on society and on the reproductive behaviors of women, who between 1890 and 1915 went from having six or more children to three. This article argues that the consolidation of this social space generated tensions in the 'migrant world', from which the reaction, in terms of social struggles, to situations of discrimination and overcrowding particularly directed towards women motivated changes in daily life. These changes had an impact on the ways of living, feeding back a new spatiality. The methodology combines critical analysis of research and quantitative analysis of the study of secondary statistical data.