Unequal contracts. Dairy producers and gender structures in Buenos Aires since the sixties

ALEJANDRA DE ARCE

Ontario

Congreso; RWSA Triennial Conference: Kitchen Table Talk to Global Forum; 2021

University of Guelph

As a traditional economic activity, the dairy is part of the first phase of the dairy agri-food system. In Buenos Aires, the strategic importance of the Abasto Sur Basin is evident from its proximity to the centers of fresh milk consumption. Made up of around twenty districts -among which Chascomús, Navarro and Lobos stand out- its historical constitution links it with the roots of immigrant producers and with the establishment of colonies with a specific destination for the dairy farming.Although livestock has been thought of as a space for male management, the historical importance of family work determines the particularities of dairy farms, as well as the problems associated with its regulation. The Statute of the ?tambero-mediero? (1946) promoted by Peronism promotes the socioeconomic improvement of the working families of the sector. Its repeal in 1999 shows the transformations of the activity and its actors. In this changing context, the relevance of female labor (domestic and non-domestic) in dairy farms suffers from little historiographic record.The objective of this presentation is to characterize the activities held in the dairy family farms in the Buenos Aires Abasto Sur Basin from the testimonies of some of its protagonists. Based on oral history techniques and from a gender perspective, the organization and division of domestic and productive tasks will be analyzed in the so-called "small dairy farms" of the parties of Gral. Belgrano, Gral. Paz and Monte (Buenos Aires). As an initial hypothesis, I argue that the intensive demand for fresh milk and its derivatives promotes an equalization of the value of work between men and women involved in production, beyond stereotypes. However, the statutes that regulate this activity imply -in practice- unequal access to social security benefits as much as they intensify female work to support the home and dairy farm.