The politics of Pan-American cooperation: Maternalist feminism and the child rights movement, 1913-1960

Gender and History

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 449-469

  Guy, Donna J ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0242503389     PISSN: 09535233     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-0424.00113     Document Type: Review

References (57)

1. Leila J. Rupp, 'Constructing Internationalism: The Case of Transnational Women's Organizations, 1888-1945', American Historical Review, 99 (1994), p. 1599.
2. US Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Pan-American Congresses, Women's Auxiliary Committee (hereinafter referred to as USLC, Women's Auxiliary Committee), Box 4. Copy of letter from Mrs Robert Lansing, Pan-American Union, 28 June 1916. Response by Dr Julieta Lantieri de Renshaw, Primer Congreso Americano del Niño, Buenos Aires, 23 August 1916.
3. USLC, Women's Auxiliary Committee, Box 5, newspaper clipping 'PanAmerican Union of Women Planned', hand-dated 6 January 1916.
4. This was the experience of Dora Mayer of Peru. After being invited to be a member of the committee in 1916, in 1918 she received a letter saying that her research had been received but her membership had since been revoked and they could not use her findings. They did this to place an elite woman on the Peruvian committee. USLC, Women's Auxiliary Committee, 25 February 1918, Executive Secretary to Dora Mayer.
5. The WAC claimed that even though they credited the International Committee for the idea, it had been decided by the US members. USLC, Women's Auxiliary Committee, Box 4, 21 May 1918, copy of letter from Mrs Glenn Levin Swiggett to Julia Lathrop.
6. Bulletin of the Woman's Auxiliary Committee of the U.S. (February 1921), p. 4.
7. Boletín de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana (June 1930), pp. 655-6.
8. Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Politics of Social Provision in the United States, 1870s-1920s (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992); Valerie Fildes, Lara Marks and Hilary Marland, Women and Children First: International Maternal and Infant Welfare 1870-1945 (Routledge, London and New York, 1992); Linda Gordon, 'Social Insurance and Public Assistance: The Influence of Gender in Welfare Thought in the United States, 1890-1935', American Historical Review, 97 (1992), pp. 19-54; Richard A. Meckel, Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant Mortality 1850-1929 (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore and London, 1988); Seth Koven and Sonya Michel (eds), Mothers of a New World: Matemalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States (Routledge, New York and London, 1993).
9. Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Politics of Social Provision in the United States, 1870s-1920s (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992); Valerie Fildes, Lara Marks and Hilary Marland, Women and Children First: International Maternal and Infant Welfare 1870-1945 (Routledge, London and New York, 1992); Linda Gordon, 'Social Insurance and Public Assistance: The Influence of Gender in Welfare Thought in the United States, 1890-1935', American Historical Review, 97 (1992), pp. 19-54; Richard A. Meckel, Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant Mortality 1850-1929 (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore and London, 1988); Seth Koven and Sonya Michel (eds), Mothers of a New World: Matemalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States (Routledge, New York and London, 1993).
10. Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Politics of Social Provision in the United States, 1870s-1920s (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992); Valerie Fildes, Lara Marks and Hilary Marland, Women and Children First: International Maternal and Infant Welfare 1870-1945 (Routledge, London and New York, 1992); Linda Gordon, 'Social Insurance and Public Assistance: The Influence of Gender in Welfare Thought in the United States, 1890-1935', American Historical Review, 97 (1992), pp. 19-54; Richard A. Meckel, Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant Mortality 1850-1929 (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore and London, 1988); Seth Koven and Sonya Michel (eds), Mothers of a New World: Matemalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States (Routledge, New York and London, 1993).
11. Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Politics of Social Provision in the United States, 1870s-1920s (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992); Valerie Fildes, Lara Marks and Hilary Marland, Women and Children First: International Maternal and Infant Welfare 1870-1945 (Routledge, London and New York, 1992); Linda Gordon, 'Social Insurance and Public Assistance: The Influence of Gender in Welfare Thought in the United States, 1890-1935', American Historical Review, 97 (1992), pp. 19-54; Richard A. Meckel, Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant Mortality 1850-1929 (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore and London, 1988); Seth Koven and Sonya Michel (eds), Mothers of a New World: Matemalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States (Routledge, New York and London, 1993).
12. Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Politics of Social Provision in the United States, 1870s-1920s (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992); Valerie Fildes, Lara Marks and Hilary Marland, Women and Children First: International Maternal and Infant Welfare 1870-1945 (Routledge, London and New York, 1992); Linda Gordon, 'Social Insurance and Public Assistance: The Influence of Gender in Welfare Thought in the United States, 1890-1935', American Historical Review, 97 (1992), pp. 19-54; Richard A. Meckel, Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant Mortality 1850-1929 (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore and London, 1988); Seth Koven and Sonya Michel (eds), Mothers of a New World: Matemalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States (Routledge, New York and London, 1993).
13. The literature on the state in Latin America emphasises the role of public health physicians, legal experts and charities, and underplays the role of feminists. See UNICRI, ILANUD, Del revés al derecho: La condición juridíca de la infancia en América Latina: Bases para una reforma legislativa (Editorial Galerna, Buenos Aires, 1992); María Ines Passanante, Pobreza y acción social en la historia argentine: De la Beneficencia a la Seguridad Social (Editorial HVMANITAS, Buenos Aires, 1987); Angela de Castro Gomes, Ana Frega, Monica Campins, Horacio Gaggero, Alicia Garro, Estado, corporativismo y accion social ... en Brasil, Argentina y Uruguay (Fundación Simon Rodríguez, Buenos Aires, 1992). To understand the role of feminists, consult K. Lynn Stoner, From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Women's Movement for Legal Reform 1898-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1991). Asunción Lavrin, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, 1890-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1995); June Hahner, The Emancipation of the Female Sex, The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1990); Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Struggle for Social Justice (University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1991).
14. The literature on the state in Latin America emphasises the role of public health physicians, legal experts and charities, and underplays the role of feminists. See UNICRI, ILANUD, Del revés al derecho: La condición juridíca de la infancia en América Latina: Bases para una reforma legislativa (Editorial Galerna, Buenos Aires, 1992); María Ines Passanante, Pobreza y acción social en la historia argentine: De la Beneficencia a la Seguridad Social (Editorial HVMANITAS, Buenos Aires, 1987); Angela de Castro Gomes, Ana Frega, Monica Campins, Horacio Gaggero, Alicia Garro, Estado, corporativismo y accion social ... en Brasil, Argentina y Uruguay (Fundación Simon Rodríguez, Buenos Aires, 1992). To understand the role of feminists, consult K. Lynn Stoner, From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Women's Movement for Legal Reform 1898-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1991). Asunción Lavrin, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, 1890-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1995); June Hahner, The Emancipation of the Female Sex, The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1990); Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Struggle for Social Justice (University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1991).
15. The literature on the state in Latin America emphasises the role of public health physicians, legal experts and charities, and underplays the role of feminists. See UNICRI, ILANUD, Del revés al derecho: La condición juridíca de la infancia en América Latina: Bases para una reforma legislativa (Editorial Galerna, Buenos Aires, 1992); María Ines Passanante, Pobreza y acción social en la historia argentine: De la Beneficencia a la Seguridad Social (Editorial HVMANITAS, Buenos Aires, 1987); Angela de Castro Gomes, Ana Frega, Monica Campins, Horacio Gaggero, Alicia Garro, Estado, corporativismo y accion social ... en Brasil, Argentina y Uruguay (Fundación Simon Rodríguez, Buenos Aires, 1992). To understand the role of feminists, consult K. Lynn Stoner, From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Women's Movement for Legal Reform 1898-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1991). Asunción Lavrin, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, 1890-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1995); June Hahner, The Emancipation of the Female Sex, The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1990); Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Struggle for Social Justice (University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1991).
16. The literature on the state in Latin America emphasises the role of public health physicians, legal experts and charities, and underplays the role of feminists. See UNICRI, ILANUD, Del revés al derecho: La condición juridíca de la infancia en América Latina: Bases para una reforma legislativa (Editorial Galerna, Buenos Aires, 1992); María Ines Passanante, Pobreza y acción social en la historia argentine: De la Beneficencia a la Seguridad Social (Editorial HVMANITAS, Buenos Aires, 1987); Angela de Castro Gomes, Ana Frega, Monica Campins, Horacio Gaggero, Alicia Garro, Estado, corporativismo y accion social ... en Brasil, Argentina y Uruguay (Fundación Simon Rodríguez, Buenos Aires, 1992). To understand the role of feminists, consult K. Lynn Stoner, From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Women's Movement for Legal Reform 1898-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1991). Asunción Lavrin, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, 1890-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1995); June Hahner, The Emancipation of the Female Sex, The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1990); Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Struggle for Social Justice (University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1991).
17. The literature on the state in Latin America emphasises the role of public health physicians, legal experts and charities, and underplays the role of feminists. See UNICRI, ILANUD, Del revés al derecho: La condición juridíca de la infancia en América Latina: Bases para una reforma legislativa (Editorial Galerna, Buenos Aires, 1992); María Ines Passanante, Pobreza y acción social en la historia argentine: De la Beneficencia a la Seguridad Social (Editorial HVMANITAS, Buenos Aires, 1987); Angela de Castro Gomes, Ana Frega, Monica Campins, Horacio Gaggero, Alicia Garro, Estado, corporativismo y accion social ... en Brasil, Argentina y Uruguay (Fundación Simon Rodríguez, Buenos Aires, 1992). To understand the role of feminists, consult K. Lynn Stoner, From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Women's Movement for Legal Reform 1898-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1991). Asunción Lavrin, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, 1890-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1995); June Hahner, The Emancipation of the Female Sex, The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1990); Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Struggle for Social Justice (University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1991).
18. The literature on the state in Latin America emphasises the role of public health physicians, legal experts and charities, and underplays the role of feminists. See UNICRI, ILANUD, Del revés al derecho: La condición juridíca de la infancia en América Latina: Bases para una reforma legislativa (Editorial Galerna, Buenos Aires, 1992); María Ines Passanante, Pobreza y acción social en la historia argentine: De la Beneficencia a la Seguridad Social (Editorial HVMANITAS, Buenos Aires, 1987); Angela de Castro Gomes, Ana Frega, Monica Campins, Horacio Gaggero, Alicia Garro, Estado, corporativismo y accion social ... en Brasil, Argentina y Uruguay (Fundación Simon Rodríguez, Buenos Aires, 1992). To understand the role of feminists, consult K. Lynn Stoner, From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Women's Movement for Legal Reform 1898-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1991). Asunción Lavrin, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, 1890-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1995); June Hahner, The Emancipation of the Female Sex, The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1990); Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Struggle for Social Justice (University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1991).
19. The literature on the state in Latin America emphasises the role of public health physicians, legal experts and charities, and underplays the role of feminists. See UNICRI, ILANUD, Del revés al derecho: La condición juridíca de la infancia en América Latina: Bases para una reforma legislativa (Editorial Galerna, Buenos Aires, 1992); María Ines Passanante, Pobreza y acción social en la historia argentine: De la Beneficencia a la Seguridad Social (Editorial HVMANITAS, Buenos Aires, 1987); Angela de Castro Gomes, Ana Frega, Monica Campins, Horacio Gaggero, Alicia Garro, Estado, corporativismo y accion social ... en Brasil, Argentina y Uruguay (Fundación Simon Rodríguez, Buenos Aires, 1992). To understand the role of feminists, consult K. Lynn Stoner, From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Women's Movement for Legal Reform 1898-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1991). Asunción Lavrin, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, 1890-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1995); June Hahner, The Emancipation of the Female Sex, The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940 (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1990); Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Struggle for Social Justice (University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1991).
20. La Prensa (Argentina), 18 October 1913, p. 13.
21. The list of participants can be found in 'Primer Congreso Americano del Niñó, Boletín No. 3 (Imp. Escoffier, Caracciolo y Cía., Buenos Aires, 1915).
22. 'Congreso Americano del Niño', La Vanguardia, (Argentina) 14 July 1916, p. 1.
23. The Boletín del Institute International Americano de Protección a la Infancia (hereinafter referred to as Boletín IIAPI) recounted the many ways that the congresses influenced individual countries to change their laws and allocate funds.
24. USLC, Women's Auxiliary Committee, Box 8. Mimeo, 'Informal Report to the Women's Auxiliary Committee by Mrs. G. L. Swigett, the Committee's Official Delegate to the Lima Conference, 24 December-6 January 1925', Resolutions, p. 11.
25. IIAPI Archives, 'Acta de Fundación del IIAPI, 9 de junio de 1927' (Founding of IIAPI, 9 June 1927) indicates that only males were present to sign the document. The Chilean feminist, Cora Mayer, never responded to the letter from Emilio Fournié of 9 August 1927. IIAPI Archives, Copybook No. 1, Letter No. 5.
26. IIAPI Archives, 'Acta de Fundación del IIAPI, 9 de junio de 1927' (Founding of IIAPI, 9 June 1927) indicates that only males were present to sign the document. The Chilean feminist, Cora Mayer, never responded to the letter from Emilio Fournié of 9 August 1927. IIAPI Archives, Copybook No. 1, Letter No. 5.
27. Boletín IIAPI, 1 (1927), p. 12.
28. Dr Rafael Larco Herrera, Métodos para defender la vida del niño: A las madres peruanas (T. Scheuch, Lima, 1924); the quote is on p. 5.
29. Actas de la Primera Conferencia Panamericana de Eugenesia y Homicultura de las Repúblicas Americanas (Official Publication, Cuba, 1928), pp. 322-5. For more on this Pan-American conference see Donna J. Guy, 'The Pan American Child Congresses, 1916-1942: Pan Americanism, Child Reform and the Welfare State in Latin America', Journal of Family History, 23 (1998), pp. 272-91.
30. Actas de la Primera Conferencia Panamericana de Eugenesia y Homicultura de las Repúblicas Americanas (Official Publication, Cuba, 1928), pp. 322-5. For more on this Pan-American conference see Donna J. Guy, 'The Pan American Child Congresses, 1916-1942: Pan Americanism, Child Reform and the Welfare State in Latin America', Journal of Family History, 23 (1998), pp. 272-91.
31. Dra Fidelia Mestre y Hevia, ¡Salve su niño! (Suárez, Casara y Cía., Havana, 1916), p. 1. Found in USLC, Women's Auxiliary Committee, Box 7.
32. Molly Ladd-Taylor, '"Why Does Congress Wish Women and Children to Die?": The Rise and Fall of Public Maternal and Infant Health Care in the United States, 1921-29', in Women and Children First, ed. Valerie A. Fildes, Lara Marks, and Hillary Marland (eds), Women and Children First: International Maternal and Infant Welfare, 1870-1945, Wellcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine, 4 (Routledge, London and New York, 1992), pp. 121-32; Lela B. Costin, Two Sisters for Social Justice: A Biography of Grace and Edith Abbott (University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1983), ch. 7.
33. Molly Ladd-Taylor, '"Why Does Congress Wish Women and Children to Die?": The Rise and Fall of Public Maternal and Infant Health Care in the United States, 1921-29', in Women and Children First, ed. Valerie A. Fildes, Lara Marks, and Hillary Marland (eds), Women and Children First: International Maternal and Infant Welfare, 1870-1945, Wellcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine, 4 (Routledge, London and New York, 1992), pp. 121-32; Lela B. Costin, Two Sisters for Social Justice: A Biography of Grace and Edith Abbott (University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1983), ch. 7.
34. Katherine F. Lenroot, 'Prevención de la delincuencia juvenil', Boletín IIAPI, 1 (1928), pp. 470-78.
35. Katherine F. Lenroot, 'V Congreso Panamericano del Niño', Boletín IIAPI, 1 (1928), p. 557.
36. Katherine F. Lenroot, 'V Congreso', p. 558.
37. Boletín IIAPI, 1 (1928), pp. 106-7; 26 (1952), pp. 106-7; the quote is from 2 (1929), p. 260.
38. Boletín IIAPI, 1 (1928), pp. 106-7; 26 (1952), pp. 106-7; the quote is from 2 (1929), p. 260.
39. Boletín IIAPI, 1 (1928), pp. 106-7; 26 (1952), pp. 106-7; the quote is from 2 (1929), p. 260.
40. Sixth Pan-American Child Congress Lima, 4-11 July 1930, Report of the Delegates of the United States of America (US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC), p. 38.
41. Sixth Pan-American Child Congress Lima, 4-11 July 1930, Report of the Delegates of the United States of America, pp. 52-3.
42. USNA, Record Group 102, 0-1-0-7-12, Memorandum regarding increased support for the US for the International American Institute for the Protection of Childhood. Enclosed in letter from Katherine Lenroot, Assistant to the Chief, to Leo S. Rowe, 10 June 1929, pp. 3-4.
43. In fact she had been appointed by the Department of State on 18 April 1929, with the understanding that she would 'not be authorized to commit or speak for the United States', instructions given to all people appointed as US representatives to IIAPI. USNA, Record Group 102, 0-1-7-12, carbon of letter from Katherine Lenroot to Miss Isabel K. Macdermott, managing editor of the Pan-American Bulletin; IIAPI Archives, Carpeta 10, ca. 1929, Luis Morquio to K. Lenroot.
44. USNA, Record Group 102, 0-1-0-7-13, letter from Henry Allen Moe, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to Dr Neva R. Deardorff, 16 September 1931; letter from Neva Deardorff to Grace Abbott, including mimeo report of US Committee on Cooperation in Pan-American Child Welfare Work, 27 July 1931, p. 5. IIAPI Archives, letter from Katherine Lenroot to Dr Luis Morquio, 22 June 1929; with the letter came Lenroot's notes on the first meeting of the committee.
45. VII Congreso Panamericano del Niño, Memoria del VII Congreso Panamericano del Niño, 2 vols (Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, Mexico, 1937).
46. Katherine F. Lenroot, 'Child Welfare in Latin America', Bulletin of the Pan American Union (June 1939), p. 336.
47. Katherine F. Lenroot, 'Child Welfare in Latin America', pp. 336-9.
48. Katherine F. Lenroot, 'Child Welfare in Latin America', p. 348.
49. Eighth Pan-American Child Congress, Eighth Pan-American Child Congress, Washington DC, May 2-9, 1942 (Government Printing Office, 1942), p. 1.
50. Eighth Pan-American Child Congress, pp. 3-16.
51. Dr Roberto Berro, 'Una gran trabajadora social, Katherine F. Lenroot', Boletín IIAPI, 25 (1951), pp. 312-15.
52. IIAPI Archives, pamphlet 'Dinner Honoring Katherine F. Lenroot: a Life of Service to Children', 3 October 1951, Washington, DC.
53. IIAPI Archives, Copiador 1951, 17 October 1951, expediente 3167.
54. Dr Roberto Berro, 'Una gran trabajadora social', pp. 312-5
55. Elisabeth Shirley Enochs, 'Pan Americanism and the American Woman', Boletín IIAPI, 34 (1960), p. 278.
56. Elisabeth Shirley Enochs, 'Pan Americanism and the American Woman', p. 285.
57. Congresos Pan Americanos del Niño, Ordenación sistemática de sus recomendaciones 1916-1963 (Instituto Interamericano del Niño, Montevideo, 1965).