Abstract
Solberg's The Double Day (1976), although produced in English, is recognized as the first Latin American feminist documentary. In it, Solberg, by interviewing women from (principally) Argentina, Mexico, and Bolivia, and discussing with them their work lives, demonstrates the nature of the 'double day' by which women work a full shift outside the home and then work a second shift as principal homemakers. Solberg's approach is to homologize the experience of women in societies at such differing sociopolitical stages as Argentina and Bolivia, and what the documentary gains in the rhetorical emphasis on a common workload is diluted by the failure to recognize important political and economic differences between Latin American societies. Nevertheless, the documentary importance of Solberg's work cannot be diminished: at a time when international feminism was just beginning to overcome the tendency to look at women's lives beyond the models of Anglo-European capitalism, Solberg's inaugural interpretation of women's work in Latin America is an important launching point for Latin American feminism.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 55-64 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 2012 |
Keywords
- Helena Solberg's the double day
- Panamericanismo
- Women and domestic work
- Women in Latin America and work
- Women in the workforce
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- Sociology and Political Science
- Literature and Literary Theory