Beneficent maternalism: Argentine motherhood in comparative perspective, 1880-1920

This article places an important Argentine voluntary association, the Benef icent Society, within the international context of women's maternalist acti vism. Mead focuses on the efforts of elite womens associations to influence depended not only on governmental structure but also on women's ability to take advantage of prevailing cultural and nationalist concerns. Comparing Argentina with France and the United States, mead weighs the importance of Catholicism, medical corporations, immigration, and differences among local groups of maternalists in explaining the success of the Beneficent Society before 1920 and its subsequent marginalization.