Summary

This article analyzes the presence of women and children in the labor market in the province of Antofagasta during the period of the fi rst economic modernization. It seeks to identify the areas of their participation in the labor market and evaluate its relationship with the modern enterprise. He argues that women’s work outside the home in the region, maintained a transitional character between traditional and modern ways of working. One of the factors that conditioned industrial development was the lowest in the region compared to Santiago and Valparaiso. In the case of child labor, with a predominance of boys over girls, and this was signifi cantly associated with mining activities.