Gender, Economic Development and the Puerto Rican Welfare State

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between gender and the origins and implementation of federal welfare aims in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. It is argued that women's groups played a significantly less direct role in the establishment of federal social insurance and social assistance programs in Puerto Rico than on the U.S. mainland. Early 20th century Puerto Rican feminist and other groups dedicated to the welfare of women and children were subsumed in political parties and their conflicts about the Depression-era quest for economic relief and later U.S.-supported economic developmentalism.

Citation

Morrissey, M. (2005), "Gender, Economic Development and the Puerto Rican Welfare State", Texler Segal, M. and Demos, V. (Ed.) Gender Realities: Local and Global (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 89-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2126(05)09004-1