Abstract

This article analyzes the problem of female insertion in Chilean rural education during the first half of the 20th century. Fisrt, we examine the educational policies towards rural areas, and then we center our analysis in the case studio of the first Escuela Granja Femenina Nº40. We propose that the foundation of this School is not only an attempt to integrate peasant women to economic production but also the result of feminist thinking that seeks the emancipation and improvement of peasant women life. For the analysis, we used sources from the Ministry of Public Education Archive related to Escuelas Granjas, periodical publications of the Ministry such as Revista Agrícola and Revista de Educación, and the magazine La Mujer Nueva edited by the Movimiento Pro Emancipación de la Mujer (MEMCH). We conclude that rural education generated a subordinate discourse for women and marginalized them of the modernization processes that education was supposed to encourage in rural areas.