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Contested Meanings: Protection and Resistance in Labour Inspectors’ Reports in Twentieth‐Century Greece
Author(s) -
Avdela Efi
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
gender and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-0424
pISSN - 0953-5233
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0424.00060
Subject(s) - backwardness , resistance (ecology) , construct (python library) , legislation , period (music) , sociology , gender studies , political science , law , economic growth , economics , aesthetics , ecology , philosophy , computer science , biology , programming language
Reports written by Labour Inspectors responsible for the implementation of protective labour legislation in Greek industry during the period 1913–34 are analysed both as discourses that construct new industrial relations and as sources that provide evidence of workers’ resistance. To account for their difficulty in implementing labour laws, Inspectors defined themselves as agents of ‘progress’ struggling against the ‘backwardness’ of the working masses, especially as expressed in gender attitudes. Yet the reports also provide evidence of divergent cultural meanings and unravel the multiple ways in which men and women workers negotiated their identities.