Abstract

LORENZO, María Dolores. Social Workers in the 1930s. Helping the Poor and Serving the State. Hist. mex. [online]. 2018, vol.68, n.2, pp.713-746. ISSN 2448-6531.  https://doi.org/10.24201/hm.v68i2.3750.

Studying the integration of new professions in the welfare bureaucracy is one of the best ways to explain the modernization of public services. In this article, we examine how social workers were involved into the Beneficencia Pública del Distrito Federal. We propose that, along the decade of 1930’s, these employees fulfilled various tasks and strenuous working days in exchange for low wages. Despite these conditions, they gain a place as employees of public social services. Also in this process, schoolar formation, the recognition of the government and the feminization of their activities, institutionalized the profession of social work in Mexico. In the text, it is shown that the transformation of the state does not arise only from the enunciation of an administrative, secular and progressive reform in favor of social rights, because the hard work of people is necessary to achieve it.

Keywords : Social Workers; Social Work; Urban Poverty; 20th Century; Welfare System.