Women, labor, and the confectionery industry

The contribution of popular confectioners to the economy of Pesqueira, Pernambuco, and the appropriation of their knowledge by local entrepreneurs (1890–1926)

Abstract

This article examines the work of popular confectioners in the municipality of Pesqueira, Pernambuco, between 1890 and 1926, highlighting their contribution to the development of a regional economy based on the domestic production of guava preserves, as well as the processes through which their knowledge was appropriated by local entrepreneurs. The study centers on the lives and work of Deolinda Maria de Jesus and her three daughters—Maria Leopoldina dos Santos Frexeiras, Dina Maria da Conceição, and Maria Emília da Anunciação—who are identified as pioneers of the municipality’s confectionery industry. Grounded in the intersectional analysis of gender, race, and class proposed by Angela Davis and in Fredrik Barth’s theoretical framework on generative models, the article argues that these women confectioners faced a series of challenges because they were poor, mixed-race women born under the Brazilian Empire and active during the early decades of the Republic, as they sought to establish themselves in the confectionery market. The study draws on a cross-analysis of diverse sources, including newspapers, records from the Recife Board of Trade, and civil records available through the FamilySearch database. This approach demonstrates women’s central role in the creation of the region’s confectionery industry, as well as the processes through which these women were excluded from historiographical narratives on confectionery production in Pernambuco.