From “knitters” to schoolmistresses: prospects and professional activism

Abstract

The article examines the historical precedents of the female schoolteacher. It stresses the presence of women who taught in private and domestic settings before the rise of Spanish state school system. Such women were branded as ignorant and obsolete by educational reformers and male teachers and they were gradually replaced by qualified teachers under state control. The entry of the first women teachers into formal education shows distinctive features in their training, professional prestige and individual strategies of resistance. The development of the ability to negociate by women teachers should be understood as a form of apprenticeship that made the creation of a professional identity possible and generated supportive networks among them. Their professional activism was evident in the struggle for equal pay. This achievement was decisive to these women who encroached on a historically male preserve.