Abstract
Between 1920 and 1948, Sanborns developed into Mexico’s most prestigious social institution. As the business evolved from a drugstore into a modern department store, the owners hired a redominantly female workforce to cater to visiting customers. This work explores how Sanborns adopted a paternalistic labor system and gendered hierarchy over its workforce. Women workers rejected this paternalism, motivated by eruptions of outside organizations, fellow employees, and visiting customers. Workingwomen at Sanborns navigated around gender, race, and class divisions during their work routines. This work observes how precarious labor conditions at Sanborns led to labor movements directed against the store management.
Highlights
Walter and Frank Sanborn, the two brothers from California that established the Sanborns American Pharmacy in 1903, had built a formidable reputation for themselves among elite circles
This work highlights some of the everyday labor conditions of working women in the retail sector in Mexico City and Monterrey from 1920-1948
It shows that Sanborns adopted a paternalistic labor system to manage its predominantly female workforce
Summary
Company owners hired working-class Mexican women to serve the large crowds that visited Sanborns seven days a week from 8:00am to 10:00pm (Anonymous, 1921a). The preference that Sanborns management had in hiring working women was, paradoxically, contrary to the labor trends of other major restaurants in Mexico City. For working women at Sanborns, the boundaries between their rights as workers and their everyday working conditions were nonaligned It remains unclear whether working women received any form of non-wage benefits for their continued employment and acquiescence to the company’s labor paternalism. The memorandum stated that company owners at Sanborns did have the power to dismiss their employees without justification, if necessary, but were bound to fulfill their labor contracts they had signed or provide the required 90-days of wages.
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