Women and industrial hygiene in post-revolutionary Mexico: Juan de Beraza’s report on “La Perfeccionada” (October 25, 1919)

Abstract

In October 1919, during the construction of post-revolutionary health protection institutions in Mexico, Juan de Beraza, an office assistant to the Secretary of Industry, Commerce, and Labor, wrote a document about the conditions of 479 women workers in a factory in the capital. The report had a summary of hygiene and sexual harassment problems that women experienced in their workplaces. The document offers relevant information about the history of women in the “world of work” in the first decades of the twentieth century. A transcript of the report is published, preceded by a presentation of the report.

industrial hygiene; women’s history; Mexico; hygienic surveillance; twentieth century