Housing and Social Justice for Working Women. The case of the Home of the Employee of the Eva Perón Foundation in the City of Buenos Aires (1948-1952)

Abstract

The Eva Perón Foundation is created in 1948 by María Eva Duarte de Perón. This institution, characterized by various authors as parastatal, semi-public, private, discretionary or complementary to government entities, constitutes a particular case of public policy articulation in which women constitute the focus of attention. This institution breaks into the political scene of a Welfare State with novel and particular features and strategies, where it will dialogue, not always in a friendly way, with members and organizations of the first Peronist government; but also, with other private institutions such as the Charity Society or Federation of Catholic Employees Associations. It is in this sense that the Home of the Employee, inaugurated in December 1948, will respond to a problem of a governmental nature, but from an institution, in principle, outside the state bureaucracies. The building in question constitutes an exceptional case that will account for the increase in women's jobs in the City of Buenos Aires, and the internal migrations that this entailed, where the architectural styles, decoration and furniture, which we can call aesthetic components , become a protagonist through totalizer social justice.