Radio and the Gendered Soundscape
Women and Broadcasting in Argentina and Uruguay, 1930–1950

This book is a history of women, radio, and the gendered constructions of voice and sound in Argentina and Uruguay.

Christine Ehrick (Author)

9781107079564, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 July 2015

240 pages, 14 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.48 kg

'Ehrick's print archive is impressive, and it allows her to reconstruct not just a remarkably detailed history of female broadcasters and scriptwriters, but also a complex portrait of radio's transnational politics … Ehrick's book is not only an important contribution to feminist history in Latin American and radio studies more generally, but it points to the urgent need for further studies of the transnational politics of radio.' Tom McEnaney, Sound Studies

This book is a history of women, radio, and the gendered constructions of voice and sound in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay. Through the stories of five women and one radio station, this study makes a substantial theoretical contribution to the study of gender, mass media, and political culture and expands our knowledge of these issues beyond the US and Western Europe. Included here is a study of the first all-women's radio station in the Western Hemisphere, an Argentine comedian known as 'Chaplin in Skirts', an author of titillating dramatic serials and, of course, Argentine First Lady 'Evita' Perón. Through the concept of the gendered soundscape, this study integrates sound studies and gender history in new ways, asking readers to consider both the female voice in history and the sonic dimensions of gender.

Introduction: gender in and on the air
1. Radio and the modern girl: Silvia Guerrico and Buenos Aires broadcasting
2. A station for women in Montevideo: Radio Femenina
3. Feminism and populism on the airwaves: Paulina Luisi and Eva Duarte de Perón
4. Chaplin in Skirts? Niní Marshall
5. Nené Cascallar: airing clean and dirty longing
Echoes of soundscapes past: epilogue and conclusion.

Subject Areas: Media, information & communication industries [KNT], Hispanic & Latino studies [JFSL4], Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], History of the Americas [HBJK]