“Mother, wife and woman”: an analysis of female roles according to childcare manuals. Uruguay, 1865-1899

Abstract

In order to compete with other nations on the world stage, nineteen century Uruguay had to modify its political, economic and social structures. Deliberate associations between public authorities and the area of medicine were vital in establishing these structures and a new societal model. In the second half of the nineteenth century, childcare manuals were written for mothers and women’s roles in society began to be defined. We attempt to define the mother-wife-woman model health authorities sought to establish by analysing the medical discourse of a variety of childcare manuals from that time. Through this analysis, we establish that the triad of mother-wife-woman roles are impossible to define due to their intense interrelatedness, even acquiring the same meaning at times.