From bootstrap to shoulderstrap: Women secretaries and *class, culture, and voice in contemporary Puerto Rico.
Item
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Title
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From bootstrap to shoulderstrap: Women secretaries and *class, culture, and voice in contemporary Puerto Rico.
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Identifier
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AAI3047200
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identifier
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3047200
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Creator
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Casey, Geraldine J.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Ida Susser
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Date
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2002
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Cultural | Women's Studies | History, Latin American
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Abstract
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The mobilization of working-class identities among secretaries at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and the history of their trade union, La Hermandad de Empleados Exentos No Docente (The Brotherhood of Non-Teaching Employees), are explored in this case study. Analysis of the Hermandad's public campaigns and internal programs of culture and labor education provide insight into this trade union's long-term project of "classing" gender and national identities in Puerto Rico. Ethnographic data collected at a national union convention, an emergency strike assembly, and by accompanying workers on picket lines during three strikes is woven together with personal interviews, secretaries' life-history narratives ( testimonios), and participant-observation of secretaries at work.;The Hermandad ruptures traditional boundaries between class and gender identities by transforming women's demands for on-campus daycare centers and an end to domestic violence into trade union demands---supported by male and female workers---and by infusing class politics into the ritual cycle of secretaries, including National Secretaries' Week and Mother's Day. With regard to national identity, the Hermandad inserts economic struggles against "downsizing" of the public-sector workforce (which includes UPR personnel) and privatization of Puerto Rico's public corporations (colloquially called the "national patrimony") into broader campaigns that affirm Puerto Rican history and culture; locating trade union demands firmly within the larger project of cultural nationalism and defense of la puertorriquenidad. .;The experiences of secretaries within the Hermandad is an example of Caribbean and Latin American trade unionism that challenges narrow conceptions of the borders among class, gender, and national identities.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
