Evidence of the Transfer and Application of Positivist Philosophies in Latin American History

Evidence of the transfer and application of Positivist philosophies

After the wars of Independence, Latin America and the Caribbean countries were more influenced and infiltrated by Europeans. As the economy improved and liberal politicians returned to power, public policy was influenced by the teachings of European positivist philosopher Auguste Comte and his followers. This major shift in attitudes towards women was in large part due to changes in the global Industrial Revolution as well as the end of Imperialism in Latin America and the Caribbean. As the economy strengthened, the population doubled and the demand for Latin America and the Caribbean products brought entrepreneurs and a new age of capitalism and theories which were not so religious or romantic. It was at this time, in the last quarter of the 19th century, when Latin America and the Caribbean entered the world market. Certain key industries were placed under foreign control and foreign investors migrated to control their business interests. Rights of the working class women were not as important to their government as those preferences of the Capitalists who came to Latin America and the Caribbean in great numbers . Other forms of equality were seen within the nineteenth century when Benito Juarez's Mexican government sought to weaken the church's power by passing legislation to offer secondary schools for girls (Miller,35)."

In the lecture, this description of capitalism, best summarizes the economic philosophies of the 19th century that greatly affected the women, since it would force many of them from traditional roles into hard labor: "Those who own the means of production (factory equipment and land) owe nothing to the workers who make the products. Furthermore, the owners should pay their employees as little as possible, partially because these workers will only squander any income over a subsistence level primarily on gambling, alcohol, drugs and other vices." (Watrous, Mary, Lecture).

Education was not available to all women during the 19th century, but it did lead to some women becoming teachers who were secular, and not Jesuits. They were the core of a more liberal education that would be accessible to larger numbers of women later as schools were organized and constructed. (Miller, 35, 36)

Meanwhile, the French philosopher Auguste Comte and his followers had taught the well-educated elite in Europe that social problems could be best solved by using the scientific method instead of expecting "miracles" that never happened. Latin America and the Caribbean politicians were impressed with the results that Europeans were achieving by educating women to be more sophisticated wives as well as productive laborers. Educating women, the politicians reasoned, was good for the economic and social welfare of the country because all of society was being uplifted by it in Europe.

Political leaders reasoned that women's education would be a way of achieving more modernization faster by removing the control of it by the Catholic Church. Countries who had won their independence wanted to bring their countries into the age of Capitalism and logical reasoning. But in the initial stages, many females received limited education opportunities, mostly focused on their domestic duties. "The need to educate young women was stated as the need to educate them for their roles as the mothers of the new generation of citizens." (Miller 51). Education moved slowly from simply teaching skills for being a dutiful wife and mother to include job skills, and in a few cases, professional training. (Miller 35).

Because of the government prioritizing the education of middle class girls, female teachers were needed in great numbers for the first time. Now that female education was a trend that the government supported as a means to a broader and richer society, many universities and secondary schools