Health visitors and the interiorization of public health in the Pará Amazon in the 1940s

Abstract

This article analyzes the work developed by health visitors in the Special Public Health Service (SESP) during the 1940s in the city of Santarém, in the interior of Pará state. In the context of World War II, given the need to reactivate rubber production in the Amazon, a series of sanitation and health education actions were developed in the region. To enable the work with the local population, a selection and training process was carried out for residents to act as health agents in serving families. In the theoretical field, the analysis uses the concept of gender to reflect on the differentiated training and role of women, based on the thinking of Joan Scott, for whom social relations based on differences between the sexes are eminently social constructs. The study adopts a qualitative historical-documentary approach, based on the analysis of official sources — such as SESP reports, bulletins, magazines, and manuals — researched in the archives of Fiocruz (RJ) and the Evandro Chagas Institute (IEC), in Ananindeua (PA). As a result, a process was observed that, despite having its framework reinforced by a sexist rationale, inserted women into a new labor market and enabled the acquisition of theoretical and practical knowledge in the health field, making them responsible for introducing new hygiene practices among local residents.