Female metamorphosis. How women professionalized their traditional activities

Abstract

In this article I analyze how traditional activities of women in education, health care, and helping others, became professional activities. In the history of women, teaching kids, taking care of the sick, and giving assistance to orphans and the elderly, have been activities performed by women in the domestic sphere. In the Christian civilization, these activities had a religious character that during centuries evolved into secularized activities. With secularization, these traditional activities evolved to professional activities in education (Teaching, Pedagogy, Psychology); health care (Nursing, Medicine, Therapist); and helping others (Social Worker, et al). In this article I also analyze processes such as secularization and the access of women to universities, but take as reference the case of the city of Aguascalientes, Mexico, during the XX century, and observe gender inequalities that still exist. The methodology in this research consists of a historiographic revision that goes back to my own and external research.