DONNE NEL NOVECENTO 20 - Aracne editrice · Mujeresen La historiografía ha definido por...
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DONNE NEL NOVECENTO
Transcript of DONNE NEL NOVECENTO 20 - Aracne editrice · Mujeresen La historiografía ha definido por...
DONNE NEL NOVECENTO
DirettoreAntonella CUniversità degli Studi di Foggia
Comitato scientifico
José Manuel A SUniversidad Pontificia de Salamanca
Mercedes A FUniversidad de Sevilla
Pilar B DUniversidad de Granada
Salvatore BUniversidad Nacional de Educacióna Distancia de Madrid
Vittoria BUniversità degli Studi di Bari
Laura Maria BUniversidad Carlos III de Madrid
Giuditta BUniversità degli Studi di Ferrara
Šárka BUniverzita Pardubice
Barbara D SUniversità degli Studi di Foggia
Loreta D SUniversidad del País Vasco
Gloria E TUniversidad de Cádiz
Patrizia GUniversità degli Studi di Siena
Manuela GUniversità degli Studi di Bologna
María Mercedes G SUniversidad de Oviedo
Gigliola GUniversità degli Studi di Urbino
José Maria H DUniversidad de Salamanca
Montserrat HUniversidad Carlos III de Madrid
Fidel L CUniversidad de La Coruña
Sergio M CUniversidad de Sevilla
Elena MUniversità degli Studi di Bologna
José María NUniversidad del País Vasco
Tiziana PUniversità degli Studi di Bologna
Teresa R RUniversidad Complutense de Madrid
Sara R ZUniversidad Complutense de Madrid
Sandra RUniversità degli Studi di Ferrara
Irene SUniversità degli Studi di Foggia
Fiorenza TUniversità di Cassino
Eulalia T BUniversidad Pontificia de Salamanca
Patricia VUniversity of British Columbia
Volume realizzato nell’ambito del P.A.R. dell’Università degli Studi di Foggia – Dipartimento diStudi Umanistici
DirettoreAntonella CUniversità degli Studi di Foggia
Comitato scientifico
José Manuel A SUniversidad Pontificia de Salamanca
Mercedes A FUniversidad de Sevilla
Pilar B DUniversidad de Granada
Salvatore BUniversidad Nacional de Educacióna Distancia de Madrid
Vittoria BUniversità degli Studi di Bari
Laura Maria BUniversidad Carlos III de Madrid
Giuditta BUniversità degli Studi di Ferrara
Šárka BUniverzita Pardubice
Barbara D SUniversità degli Studi di Foggia
Loreta D SUniversidad del País Vasco
Gloria E TUniversidad de Cádiz
Patrizia GUniversità degli Studi di Siena
Manuela GUniversità degli Studi di Bologna
María Mercedes G SUniversidad de Oviedo
Gigliola GUniversità degli Studi di Urbino
José Maria H DUniversidad de Salamanca
Montserrat HUniversidad Carlos III de Madrid
Fidel L CUniversidad de La Coruña
Sergio M CUniversidad de Sevilla
Elena MUniversità degli Studi di Bologna
José María NUniversidad del País Vasco
Tiziana PUniversità degli Studi di Bologna
Teresa R RUniversidad Complutense de Madrid
Sara R ZUniversidad Complutense de Madrid
Sandra RUniversità degli Studi di Ferrara
Irene SUniversità degli Studi di Foggia
Fiorenza TUniversità di Cassino
Eulalia T BUniversidad Pontificia de Salamanca
Patricia VUniversity of British Columbia
Volume realizzato nell’ambito del P.A.R. dell’Università degli Studi di Foggia – Dipartimento diStudi Umanistici
DONNE NEL NOVECENTO
Il Novecento è stato unanimemente definito dalla storiografia il “secolo della donne” per laloro presenza crescente nella sfera pubblica, ovvero l’ambito delle professioni, dapprimanei settori più vicini all’immaginario consolidato sull’identità femminile (lavoro di cura,insegnamento, professione sanitarie) per giungere a inficiare il monolitismo maschile nelletradizionali roccaforti dell’atavica misoginia. Al di là di una ricerca condotta sulle agevoliali della macrostoria, i volumi inseriti nella collana tendono a restituirci il senso del vissuto,dell’inesplorato, di quell’abisso ancora poco illuminato in cui intere esistenze hanno trovatoil loro fluire, talvolta periglioso, talvolta in palese rivolta verso cristallizzate consuetudini.Ciò che si intende indagare si inquadra prevalentemente nei forti momenti di discontinuitànella storia delle donne, allorquando una strenua consapevolezza dell’ingiustizia dellepratiche vigenti e illogicamente accettate si fa coscienza dapprima isolata, poi condivisa, einfine si trasforma in precise richieste per cui vale la pena di combattere e sacrificarsi. NelNovecento le battaglie delle donne trovano la loro legittimazione storica in un percorso dichiara natura democratica che le vede dichiarare con voci alte e sonore la loro condizionedi cittadine e di lavoratrici a pieno diritto. Finalità prioritaria delle pur eterogenee ricerchepresenti nella collana è restituire prioritariamente la cartografia di tale esperienza, adot-tando un’impostazione fortemente interdisciplinare, sul modello degli women’s studies ditradizione anglosassone.
Ogni volume della collana è sottoposto al giudizio di due blind referees.
Women in the th Century
The twentieth century has been unanimously defined by historiographers as “the women’scentury”. Indeed, it was at this time that women began to enjoy a growing presence inthe public sphere, i.e., the world of work, first in those professions already considered bythe collective consciousness as the province of females (childcare, teaching, and nursing),but later encroaching on territory traditionally deemed exclusively male. Going beyonda superficial, macro approach to research, the volumes in this series aim to restore aliving, breathing history, leading us into unexplored worlds and shining a light into thedark corners of the past, in which entire lives were lived, sometimes dangerously, andsometimes in courageous revolt against the status quo. The main focus of investigationis the moments of discontinuity in the history of women, when they began to developa strenuous awareness of the injustice of the conventional, if illogical, way of doingthings, first as isolated individuals, and then as part of a growing tide of warriors. In thetwentieth century, the battles fought by women were legitimised historically through ademocratic process that enabled them to vociferously stake their claim to equal citizenshipand professional standing, with all the associated rights. Although the perspectives andmethods in the series may be heterogeneous, they have a common aim — to map outsuch experiences, bringing a robust interdisciplinary approach to the fascinating topic ofwomen’s studies.
Each volume is submitted for approval by two blind reviewers.
Mujeres en
La historiografía ha definido por unanimidad el s.XX como el “siglo de las mujeres” por sucreciente presencia en la esfera pública, es decir, en el ámbito profesional, primero en lossectores más cercanos al imaginario consolidado relativo a la identidad femenina (cuidadode la familia, enseñanza, enfermería), para llegar a desafiar el monolitismo masculinoen los bastiones tradicionales de la misoginia atávica como la judicatura, la medicina ylas fuerzas armadas. Más allá de una investigación realizada sobre las ágiles alas de lamacrohistoria, el objetivo de los volúmenes introducidos en esta colección es el de trazarel sentido de la experiencia, de lo inexplorado, de ese abismo todavía poco iluminadoen el que fluyen enteras existencias, que, a veces, es peligroso y otras se presenta enevidente rebelión contra las costumbres cristalizadas. Lo que se pretende investigar seenmarca principalmente en los duros momentos de discontinuidad en la historia de lasmujeres, cuando el incansable sentir de la injusticia de las prácticas vigentes y aceptadasirracionalmente toma conciencia, primero de forma aislada, después compartida y, porúltimo, se transforma en reivindicaciones concretas por las que vale la pena luchar ysacrificarse. En el siglo XX las batallas de las mujeres encuentran su legitimación históricaen un recorrido de naturaleza claramente democrática en la que ellas declaran, con voz altay sonora, su condición de ciudadanas y de trabajadoras de pleno derecho. El fin último deinvestigaciones tan heterogéneas existentes en la colección es principalmente restablecerla cartografía de esa experiencia, adoptando un planteamiento interdisciplinar que tienecomo modelo los women’s studies de tradición anglosajona.
Cada volumen está sometido al juicio de dos blind referees.
As mulheres no Século XX
A historiografia unanimemente considerou o Século XX como o “século das mulheres” porcausa da presença crescente das mesmas na esfera pública, designadamente no âmbito dasprofissões, inicialmente nos setores mais próximos à imagem consolidada relativamente àidentidade feminina (trabalhos domésticos, ensino, assistência médica) e chegou mesmo adesafiar o monolitismo masculino nas cidadelas da misoginia atávica. Além de uma investi-gação efetuada sobre as asas ágeis da macro–história, os tomos incluídos nesta coletâneatendem a trazer–nos o sentido da experiência, do inexplorado, daquele abismo ainda poucoiluminado em que fluem existências inteiras, às vezes perigoso, outras vezes em evidenterevolta contra hábitos cristalizados. O que se deseja indagar enquadra-se principalmente nosfortes momentos de descontinuidade na história das mulheres, nas ocasiões em que umvalente conhecimento da injustiça das práticas em vigor e ilogicamente aceites torna–seconsciência, primeiro isoladamente, em seguida de forma partilhada e, enfim transforma-seem reivindicações claras pelas quais vale a pena combater e sacrificar–se. No Século XXas batalhas das mulheres alcançaram uma própria legitimação histórica em um percursode natureza claramente democrática em que elas declaram em voz alta e sonora a própriacondição de cidadãs e de trabalhadoras com plenos direitos. Uma finalidade prioritária dasinvestigações presentes nesta coletânea, mesmo se heterogêneas, é prioritariamente restab-elecer a cartografia de tal experiência, ao adotar uma abordagem muito interdisciplinar nomodelo dos women’s studies da tradição anglófona.
Cada tomo é submetido à avaliação de dois blind referees.
Women’s Education in Southern Europe
Historical Perspectives (th–th centuries)Volume I
edited by
Antonella CagnolatiAntonio Fco. Canales Serrano
contributions by
Antonella CagnolatiAntonio Fco. Canales Serrano
Angela CarboneHelena Costa Araújo
Katerina DalakouraDorella Dinardo
José Luis Hernandez HuertaVassilis A. Foukas
Cristina RochaLuz Sanfeliu
Raquel Vázquez Ramil
Copyright © MMXVIIAracne editrice int.le S.r.l.
via Quarto Negroni, Ariccia (RM)
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No part of this book may be reproducedby print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, or any other means,
without publisher’s authorization.
I edition: January
Copyright © MMXVIIAracne editrice int.le S.r.l.
via Quarto Negroni, Ariccia (RM)
()
----
No part of this book may be reproducedby print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, or any other means,
without publisher’s authorization.
I edition: january
All differences appeared in the humanity have resulted clearly from edification and tradition. Edification educates human beings; and the edification of each in-
dividual, gender or society depends on the national legislation, which is again men’s undertaking
Eufrosyne Samartzidou, Comparison or On the Equality of Two Genders, «Kypseli» 1, 1845, p. 30
É necessário reunir um corpo de professoras, mulheres inteligentes, bem orientadas, bem instruídas e bem convictas, que se espalhem por este pais
fora para erguer do abatimento e da rotina … que levem as noçoes de cultura, de progresso, de higiene e de educação cívica.
Ana de Castro Osório, Em Tempo de Guerra, Editora Viúva Tavares Cardoso, Lisboa, 1918, p. 58.
…es imposible no reconocer que la educación de estas mujeres [de clase media], en lugar de ser un desarrollo y un cultivo de las facultades, es una atrofia si-
stemática de todo cuanto pudiera un día ser pensamiento, libre albedrío y juicio personal
Margarita Nelken, La condición social de la mujer en España, Minerva, Barcelona 1919, p. 34
Soy feminista: me avergonzaría de no serlo, porque creo que toda mujer que piensa debe sentir el deseo de colaborar, como persona, en la obra total de la
cultura humana. Y esto es lo que para mí significa, en primer término, el femini-smo; es, por un lado, el derecho que la mujer tiene a la demanda del trabajo cul-
tural y, por otro, el deber en que la sociedad se halla de otorgárselo
Maria de Maetzu, Lo único que pedimos, in G. Martínez Sierra, La mujer moderna, Renacimiento, Madrid 1930, p. 101
La educación femenina atraviesa aún el periodo estacionario: tiene que cruzar el revolucionario, si ha de entrar en el de pacífica, sana y fecunda evolución. No
puede, en rigor, la educación actual de la mujer llamarse tal educación, sino doma, pues se propone por fin la obediencia, la pasividad y la sumisión
Emilia Pardo Bazán, La educación del hombre y de la mujer. Su relación y diferencias (Memoria leída en el Congreso Pedagógico
el día 16 de octubre de 1892), reproducido en La mujer española, Editora Nacional, Madrid 1981, p. 82
9
Table of contents
11 Aknowledgements Antonella Cagnolati, Antonio Fco. Canales Serrano
13 Introduction. Speaking out from the South in their own voice Antonella Cagnolati, Antonio Fco. Canales Serrano
17 Contribution of female lyceum for women’s public secondary education and instruction in Portugal (1888–1921) Cristina Rocha
43 The fears of sexual promiscuity and the construction of primary teaching as women’s work in Portugal (1870–1933) Helena Costa Araújo
63 Paradoxes, contradictions and dilemmas in Greek women teachers’ life and work (19th century–Interwar Period) Katerina Dalakoura
91 Istruzione femminile, stampa e opinione pubblica nel Mezzo- giorno d’Italia tra Ottocento e primo Novecento
Angela Carbone, Dorella Dinardo
117 Un modelo de educación integral de la mujer española. La Residencia de Señoritas de Madrid (1915-1936) Raquel Vázquez Ramil
169 Educar para la democracia. Asociacionismo feminista y sociabilidad instructiva para las mujeres y jóvenes durante la Segunda República Luz Sanfeliu
Table of contents 10
187 Women and educational renewal in Spain (1931-1939). The contributions of Freinet teachers José Luis Hernandez Huerta
237 A baccalaureate programme for young ladies. Father Errando-nea’s proposal in the debate on female secondary education in Spain during the early years of Franco’s regime Antonio Fco. Canales Serrano
261 Women’s education in Greece (1929-1979). Democratisation, modernisation and coeducation Vassilis A. Foukas
297 The authors
Table of contents 10
187 Women and educational renewal in Spain (1931-1939). The contributions of Freinet teachers José Luis Hernandez Huerta
237 A baccalaureate programme for young ladies. Father Errando-nea’s proposal in the debate on female secondary education in Spain during the early years of Franco’s regime Antonio Fco. Canales Serrano
261 Women’s education in Greece (1929-1979). Democratisation, modernisation and coeducation Vassilis A. Foukas
297 The authors
11
Aknowledgements
The preliminary research project that ultimately led to the publication of this volume was originally written up during the 17th Conference of the Sociedad Española de Historia de la Educación, which took place at Cádiz on the 9th to 11th of July, 2013. Between one session and an-other of the congress, standing in front of the magnificent landscape of the sea at Cádiz, the two editors – who had long been considering the idea of publishing a book together – agreed that there was a need for a scientific account of a parallel history narrating the long and ar-duous journey of the women in the Mediterranean countries, first to-wards schools and literacy, and then towards emancipation.
This idea appealed to other colleagues, each with their own particu-lar perspective, who enthusiastically got on board, defining geograph-ical areas and moments in the history of female literacy in the south, particularly the Mediterranean region. The response was so prompt and plentiful that, even as we were getting this first volume off the ground, we were already planning a second, to be released a few months later – testament to the great interest harboured by the scien-tific community for this topic.
We, as editors, would therefore like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all those who responded so prodigiously to our call for their excel-lent contributions, which do credit to the entire effort. Particular thanks are also due to the publishing house Aracne, who with great sensitivity readily agreed to publish not one but two volumes, and to the University of Foggia for entirely funding both the research project and the publication of these books.
Ferrara-Tenerife, 5th January 2017
Antonella Cagnolati, Antonio Fco. Canales Serrano
Women’s Education in Southern EuropeISBN 978-88-548-9998-8DOI 10.4399/97888548999881 pag. 11–11 (gennaio 2017)
13
Introduction Speaking out from the South in their own voice
ANTONELLA CAGNOLATI, ANTONIO FCO. CANALES SERRANO*
Over recent decades the gender perspective has prompted a notable qualitative and quantitative leap forward in our knowledge of the his-tory of women's education. Many works now explore and describe the situation of women in the national education systems set up during the 19th century, outlining their contradictions and limitations and chart-ing the narratives generated by women on the basis of their own expe-riences. Nevertheless, this marked development in historical-educational gender studies has occurred mainly in the central coun-tries of the Western world. In Southern Europe, on the other hand, the fact that this area of research has developed much later and to a much lesser extent, coupled with the scarce internationalisation of the re-sults, has meant that the historical experience of these countries hardly figures at all in the international body of knowledge compiled in this field.
This marginal position can, without doubt, be easily redressed by internationalising the results of the research conducted in these coun-tries. In fact, this is one of the aims of this book, namely to offer in-ternational readers a mosaic of little-known historical situations which deserve to be incorporated into the common collective narrative. This fulfils the first part of the maxim expressed in the title of this intro-duction: “speaking out from the South”; but that still leaves the se-cond part of the title: “in their own voice”, which leads us to a much more complex issue which has no simple solution.
The leadership of northern historiographers in the use of gender as a category of historical analysis has not only meant that the history of women's education in those countries is now better known, it has also
*Antonella Cagnolati is Professor in History of Education, Università degli Studi di Foggia (Italy). Antonio Fco. Canales Serrano is Reader in History of Education, Universidad de La Laguna (España).
Women’s Education in Southern EuropeISBN 978-88-548-9998-8DOI 10.4399/97888548999882 pag. 13–15 (gennaio 2017)
Antonella Cagnolati, Antonio Fco. Canales Serrano 14
given rise to a more significant and yet often overlooked phenome-non: the fact that internationally-accepted theoretical and interpreta-tive frameworks have mainly been built on the basis of northern expe-riences. The result is the risk of a slightly skewed, if not outright bi-ased vision of the historical experience of Southern Europe. As our re-search advances we discover hitherto unknown fields, but we interpret them on the basis of a series of categories built upon the foundations of other realities. Thus, we struggle to cram our results into moulds in-to which, very often, they simply do not fit. And how could they pos-sibly be expected to when neither the education systems themselves, nor the meaning and significance of education, were the same in the poor, backward countries of the South as they were in those nations which spearheaded modern, industrial society. Hence the importance of moving towards interpretive frameworks which can truly account for the situations that arose in southern countries; hence the im-portance of enabling these countries to speak out 'in their own voice'.
“Speaking out from the South in their own voice” therefore means pursuing two courses of action. Firstly, it means describing these hith-erto little-known situations; and secondly, it means offering interpre-tations based on the situations themselves, and which are thus adapted to the specific historical experiences being recounted. This is the two-fold aim of this book.
The contributions contained herein describe the anxieties, hesita-tions, contradictions and paradoxes which characterise the process of incorporating women into the education system in Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain, highlighting the similarities which exist between the four cases. And they do so in a diverse range of dimensions and areas, from the studies and professional practice of female primary teachers and the presence of girls in secondary education, a field traditionally reserved for boys, to non formal and informal educational institutions.
It is difficult to deny the importance of female primary school teachers in the change which occurred in the patriarchal model. Teaching was the first qualified profession which became open to women, and therefore the first crack in the wall that confined them to the domestic sphere. These first female teachers are the focus of the chapters by Katerina Dalakoura (Greece), Helena Costa Araújo (Por-tugal), Angela Carbone, Lorella Dinardo (Italy), and José Luis Her-nandez Huerta (Spain). All reveal the ambivalent nature of these fig-ures and the contradiction upon which their professional practice was
Antonella Cagnolati, Antonio Fco. Canales Serrano 14
given rise to a more significant and yet often overlooked phenome-non: the fact that internationally-accepted theoretical and interpreta-tive frameworks have mainly been built on the basis of northern expe-riences. The result is the risk of a slightly skewed, if not outright bi-ased vision of the historical experience of Southern Europe. As our re-search advances we discover hitherto unknown fields, but we interpret them on the basis of a series of categories built upon the foundations of other realities. Thus, we struggle to cram our results into moulds in-to which, very often, they simply do not fit. And how could they pos-sibly be expected to when neither the education systems themselves, nor the meaning and significance of education, were the same in the poor, backward countries of the South as they were in those nations which spearheaded modern, industrial society. Hence the importance of moving towards interpretive frameworks which can truly account for the situations that arose in southern countries; hence the im-portance of enabling these countries to speak out 'in their own voice'.
“Speaking out from the South in their own voice” therefore means pursuing two courses of action. Firstly, it means describing these hith-erto little-known situations; and secondly, it means offering interpre-tations based on the situations themselves, and which are thus adapted to the specific historical experiences being recounted. This is the two-fold aim of this book.
The contributions contained herein describe the anxieties, hesita-tions, contradictions and paradoxes which characterise the process of incorporating women into the education system in Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain, highlighting the similarities which exist between the four cases. And they do so in a diverse range of dimensions and areas, from the studies and professional practice of female primary teachers and the presence of girls in secondary education, a field traditionally reserved for boys, to non formal and informal educational institutions.
It is difficult to deny the importance of female primary school teachers in the change which occurred in the patriarchal model. Teaching was the first qualified profession which became open to women, and therefore the first crack in the wall that confined them to the domestic sphere. These first female teachers are the focus of the chapters by Katerina Dalakoura (Greece), Helena Costa Araújo (Por-tugal), Angela Carbone, Lorella Dinardo (Italy), and José Luis Her-nandez Huerta (Spain). All reveal the ambivalent nature of these fig-ures and the contradiction upon which their professional practice was
Introduction 15
based, since they were charged with transmitting the patriarchal order to their pupils, but at the same time called this order into question by their very presence in the classroom (as well as sometimes through more consciously transformative actions also).
The chapters by Cristina Rocha and Antonio Fco. Canales Serrano examine the incorporation of girls into the prestigious baccalaureate programmes in Portugal and Spain, an area of secondary education which was traditionally the exclusive domain of men. Both chapters show the complexity of the process which took place in these coun-tries, and the difficulties encountered by those wishing to consolidate a separate, exclusively female baccalaureate in response to a growing desire by both girls and their families to access a programme of stud-ies similar to that available to their male counterparts.
Raquel Vázquez Ramil and María Luz Sanfeliu focus their atten-tion on a field of vital importance for women’s education, namely non formal and informal education. Both authors examine the situation in Spain. Vázquez Ramil analyses a key institution in the process of in-corporating Spanish women into the university field: the Residencia de Señoritas, or Young Ladies’ Hall of Residence, which solved the problem of providing adequate accommodation for young women from the provinces who wished to study in Madrid, and which com-plemented this practical function with an ambitious educational pro-gramme. For her part, María Luz Sanfeliu explores the educational role played by two associations during the Second Republic, a period which saw the legal recognition of women’s equal status in Spain and their decisive entry into the public sphere. In this context, women's civic and political education became an urgent priority.
Finally, Vassilis Foukas offers a general overview of the process by which women were incorporated into the Greek education system throughout a large part of the 20th century.
International readers will therefore find in the pages of this book a set of little-known historical experiences which, without doubt, will enrich their historical knowledge of the complex relationship between women and education.
17
Contribution of female Lyceum for women’s public secondary education and instruction in Portugal (1888-1921)
Cristina Rocha*
Nowadays in the universal opinion the instruction of women is consideredas one of the best elements of a people’s instruction;
instructed people are advanced people in all fields of civilization.M.B. Borges Graínha1
1. The Lyceum2 and girls’ secondary education and instruction
Historically, women’s educational process was marked by the passage from domestic or private education held in convents or boarding schools, to public school education. In this process – in which private education coexists in its different forms – the school form3, its significance and the knowledge it provides imposes itself and must be understood4. This pro-cess follows the one of women’s secularity through their participation in academic knowledge; through their passage from the spheres of family
* Cristina Rocha is Associate Professor in Educational Sciences, Universidade do Porto, Portugal.1 M.B. Graínha, A instrução secundária de ambos os sexos no estrangeiro e em Portugal,
Tipografia Universal, Lisbon 1905. Manuel B. Graínha (1862-1925) was a secondary school teacher, mason and republican politician, who actively participated in educational, political, religious and cultural debates, in the transition from the 19th century to the 20th. In A. Nóvoa (Ed.), Dicionário de Educadores Portugueses, Asa, Porto 2003, p. 653.
2 Lyceum is used to refer to secondary education leading to university, for students aged 10 to 18 years. Within secondary school, due to its scientific humanistic strand, the Lyceum differs from technical (industrial and trade) schools.
3 V. Guy, B. Lahire, D. Thin, Sobre a história e a teoria da forma escolar, in «Educação em Revista», XXXIII, 2001.
4 The need for a suitable female education that enabled girls to govern the house and the effective education of their children was advocated by defenders of the Enlightenment such as Ribeiro Sanches (1699-1783) in his book Cartas sobre a Educação da Mocidade de 1760.
Women’s Education in Southern EuropeISBN 978-88-548-9998-8DOI 10.4399/97888548999883pag. 17–41 (gennaio 2017)
18 Cristina Rocha
and the educational institutions of the Catholic Church to the State; and by their access to occupations outside the home.
In modern society, Lyceum presents itself as an ideal form to raise ed-ucational strategies on the part of social classes. If the Lyceum diploma is distinctive of the elites, it also allows the social rise of the middle classes and is a valuable asset in the labor market.
This promotional value of the Lyceum diploma becomes of specific im-portance for girls. The possibility to obtain the diploma comes together with women’s liberation. It allows the passage of the identity and destiny based on male dependence, associated with domesticity, towards a broader identity as individual, based on economic independence through work.
In particular, the female public Lyceum allows the observation of fam-ilies’ Church and State dynamics, and their ability to trace their mark and educational direction. From the 17th century onwards, the State in Por-tugal started taking over education together while taking action towards educational laicization. The so-called «religious issue» and the expulsion of the religious orders are an expression of this.
However, if public occupations are opened to women who hold the Lyceum diploma, the household still constitutes the social space where woman’s mission as wife, homemaker, mother and educator is empha-sized. Therefore, understanding the dual purpose in public education leads us to social classes strategies and changing ideals of femininity arising with modernity, despite its apparent immobility.
2. The start of women’s Lyceum in Portugal: chronology, legal docu-ments and formative intentions
«In Portugal, there are no female Lyceums or female secondary schools with official guarantees», stated Borges Graínha in 1905, 17 years after the Act of 1888 which established «provisions relating to secondary ed-ucation for females», and justified: «Female lyceums! These two words [...] are a frightful issue for our shy and backward society. They are like
18 Cristina Rocha
and the educational institutions of the Catholic Church to the State; and by their access to occupations outside the home.
In modern society, Lyceum presents itself as an ideal form to raise ed-ucational strategies on the part of social classes. If the Lyceum diploma is distinctive of the elites, it also allows the social rise of the middle classes and is a valuable asset in the labor market.
This promotional value of the Lyceum diploma becomes of specific im-portance for girls. The possibility to obtain the diploma comes together with women’s liberation. It allows the passage of the identity and destiny based on male dependence, associated with domesticity, towards a broader identity as individual, based on economic independence through work.
In particular, the female public Lyceum allows the observation of fam-ilies’ Church and State dynamics, and their ability to trace their mark and educational direction. From the 17th century onwards, the State in Por-tugal started taking over education together while taking action towards educational laicization. The so-called «religious issue» and the expulsion of the religious orders are an expression of this.
However, if public occupations are opened to women who hold the Lyceum diploma, the household still constitutes the social space where woman’s mission as wife, homemaker, mother and educator is empha-sized. Therefore, understanding the dual purpose in public education leads us to social classes strategies and changing ideals of femininity arising with modernity, despite its apparent immobility.
2. The start of women’s Lyceum in Portugal: chronology, legal docu-ments and formative intentions
«In Portugal, there are no female Lyceums or female secondary schools with official guarantees», stated Borges Graínha in 1905, 17 years after the Act of 1888 which established «provisions relating to secondary ed-ucation for females», and justified: «Female lyceums! These two words [...] are a frightful issue for our shy and backward society. They are like
19Contribution of female Lyceum for women’s public secondary education
a tremendous heresy thrown into the midst of a quiet bourgeoisie, yet educated in the old molds of yesteryear».
And the reason is simple and conclusive. Because when you utter those two words together, the imagination of our people, who do not know its true meaning quickly pictures a swarm of pedantic women, a sort of wise mice [...], unable to endure and treat children, who will never think of the obliga-tions of the family home, who will have horror to enter a kitchen; in a word, ridiculous and smartass women, bad wives, nasty moms, weakened and im-possible daughters5.
We infer that the acceptance of female Lyceum would imply changes in girls’ education and was intended at enacting these changes. Refusing female lyceums corresponded to the assertion of: i) the incompatibility between the intellectual education and the domesticity of woman; ii) the maintenance of traditional education, designed to keep the girl worthless to herself, to the family and to society by the unpreparedness that she was voted to by means of education6. In contrast, female Lyceum shared a positivist conception of education, promoting moral and social progress and extending it to the family, as an institution.
The proposal to establish female lyceums triggered parliamentary7 and press8 debates. Detractors and apologists battle it out since it is the
5 M.B. Graínha, A instrução secundária de ambos os sexos no estrangeiro e em Portugal, cit., p. 320.
6 In the plan of the instruction and education required, several authors, namely Graínha criticized the private, domestic college education of girls of the privileged classes, vis-à-vis the use of foreign teachers, in vogue. Private and nuns colleges «are usually very expensive. Besides not ministering solid and truly practical and usable instruction, they have the serious defect [...] to cool and [...] shift the true spirit of family and the domestic hearth in female learners, instilling in their brain social and religious mistakes [...] Nuns [avoid] as much as possible sending their disciples to official exams. Run by secular women, private schools provide an education as shallow as the one of the nuns, commonly limited to primary instruction of poor solid and useful value, to the teaching of French and of some feminine gifts», Ivi, pp. 323-324.
7 Á. Adão, As Politicas Educativas nos debates parlamentares: O caso do Ensino Secundário Liceal, Assembleia da República, Lisbon 2001.
8 I. Machado, A polémica à volta da criação de liceus femininos na imprensa periódica portuguesa : 1880-1900, Master Thesis, FLUC, Coimbra 2011.
20 Cristina Rocha
State’s first foray in a purely private space hitherto occupied by family and religious institutions. In Portugal, this proposal occurs at the end of the nineteenth century, during the constitutional monarchy and due to progressive politicians’ action, 52 years after the official Lyceum was created in 18369. Even if Lyceums were for males, girls’ enrollment or presentation to examination is known10. Female demand will underlie the establishment of exclusively female Lyceums.
2.1 1888-1890: legal background. The establishment of institutes exclusively for female secondary teaching
By the referred Act of August 9, 1888, the Government is allowed to set-tle exclusively female secondary institutes in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra. This was an intrusion of the State, although mitigated in foundational and economic terms, since the initiative of establishing institutes was subject to effective competition of local, public and private institutions. How-ever, there is stronger State intervention in the educational profile and curriculum design as those institutions remained subject to the inspec-tion of secondary instruction. Planned for external female students and subject to registration fees, these institutes could be attended by female boarders «when the corporations [...] that compete for the foundation of
9 Within the Liberal Revolution (1820) public instruction will be required to contribute to social modernization. Secondary education «was the level of education able to meet [...] the ambitions of a class that emerged in the Portuguese society». The plan presented to the Cortes in 1822-1823 was to provide for the existence of lyceums and secondary schools: «[Secondary schools] would lead to a final certificate of capacity that [...] gave access to [...] subordinate administrative positions, while lyceums would lead to University». Political instability did not allow for this and the reform by Passos Manuel (1836-1844) was the one that effectively created lyceums. Decree of 17 November 1836 «establishes a uniform system for the entire country, creating a national lyceum in each of the capitals», V.P. Valente, O Estado Liberal e o Ensino. Os liceus portugueses (1834-1930), GIS, Lisbon 1973, pp. 33-36.
10 Until the creation of female lyceum in 1906, Valente (Ivi, p. 109) identified the following percentages of female students in private colleges that applied for lyceum exams: 1856/1,6%; 1874/1,2%; 1894/1,0%; 1904/2,7%.
