South American Foreign and Female Professionals: Reflections on an Unknown Contribution through Specialised South American Journals, 1929-1965

A survey of the content of the main South American specialised journals, published between the 1920s and 1960s, shows us a representative set of articles published by female professionals, although male supremacy is clear. In this set, it's possible to perceive two moments partially marked and defined by the Second World War. At first, is evident the presence of a number of female European professionals (architects, artists, plastic designs) from the publication or reproduction of articles published in Europe. However, in the second moment, what can be perceived is a prevalence of female South American architects that shows us or gives us evidences about insertion of the female architect, not only in the labour market and in the university but also in the critical field. From this context, we can ask the following questions: who were these foreign and female South American professionals? What is the influence of foreign female professionals in the local South American environment? Which are the connections between female European professionals and specialised journals in South America? What were the themes published by them? Answering to these questions is the aim of this paper. For this purpose, we have analysed ten specialised journals of the region published between 1929 and 1965, a period that corresponds to two symbolic moments for the modern movement to take effect: Le Corbusier's first visit to South America and Brasilia`s inauguration. Although the paper tries to obtain a South American look, it is necessary to clarify that it corresponds to the cases of Revista de Arquitectura and Nuestra Arquitectura (Argentina); Revista da Directoria de Engenharia and Acrópole (Brazil); PROA (Colombia); El Arquitecto Peruano (Peru); Arquitectura (Uruguay) and; Taller, Integral, and Punto (Venezuela). With this, we seek to emphasize and contribute to the discussion and problematization of a chapter still unknown and/or little approached in the referential historiography of the modern movement.