ESSAY ABOUT WORKING WOMEN (1960-1970)

WORKING WOMEN DURING 1960 – 1970

The 60´s and 70´s decades were a period with many political, sociological, psychological changes in Spain and all of them affected to the women´s role.  This essay will explain how women in this period have gone through a long way of discrimination, inequality and hard work to demonstrate their value for the society. This is a historical event; there is much information recorded, Mass Media... But there are many details hidden, so it is necessary to ask in first hand to women who have lived to see the facts of this discussion.

To obtain this information had been necessary to compare historical data with reality through an interview with two women from two different perspectives. One of them, Luisa spent 25 years in a private transport company which it was called “Signes” during the 70´s and the other was Maria, who worked in the 60´s in a public company, firstly in a leisure and sport club and a few months ago, after passing state exams, she started a job in a State Department. These women are close to our environment and had lived in this period.

During Franco´s Regime women´s role was just simple decorative, but in this years the big changes in women´s life began due to woman begin to find jobs and working. After the Civil War women could not work when they married, or work at night as children too, or sign a contract without the consent of their husbands. The 60´s and 70´s go from Franco´s dead to 1978 Spanish Constitution. The arrival of the 1978 Spanish Constitution was the beginning of the transition of women equal to men.

There were many laws which discriminated women. One of these requirements was the “marital license”, which consisted in the husband´s authorization to allow his wife to work in any job. This was remained until the legislative reform of 1975. Until 1966, women could not work as magistrates, judge and prosecutors from the Justice Administration. Despite this situation some jobs were closed to women, for instance: the Police or the Armed Forces. We must notice that until the constitution of 1978 was not promulgated equality, between men and women were not possible.

In the type of work, there were two different groups of women in working life. The first group was formed by those lower middle-class women who work in women´s typical jobs, such as: assistants, secretaries, teachers, housewives, etc; this is the Luisa´s case, who worked as secretary in a private transportation company to help her family´s economy.

The second group belongs to upper class women who complemented their studies at the University; however there were very few women in engineering´s careers due to the difficulty to enter being a woman. Maria told us a curious anecdote: I still remember that I met the first woman engineer; I have forgotten if she was doing Industrial or Road engineering. In those days there were more women studying Pharmacy or Nursing at the University than engineers. The truth is that there were specific careers for women and a higher proportion of men in the Universities”.

Family´s opinion was very important when women want to participate in the working world. From Luisa´s perspective; getting salary was considered by all members of the family as a male activity, which was only justifiable only if they are widowed. Women´s jobs also meant a danger for family´s institution, due to the economical independence of women, working out of home involving a serious offense to the husband´s dignity. The aim was to keep women out of labor market, especially if they were married. In those days if a woman worked was one humiliation for the man as head of the house. In fact, a law was issued in 2^nd May of 1975, which repealed that women could work if they were married.

In the public administration as Maria tells us there was enough equality in selection of women; however was not the same case of private enterprise, as in the case of Luisa, who worked alone with another woman. The selection processes between men and women were different. Women did not have the same labor rights, such as: differences in wages, option to achieve a leadership position, etc. Otherwise, the reasons of this difference in the treatment are caused by the fact that the female condition affects over labor services mainly due to the maternity and its derivations.

This does not seem very logical, if we consider it from the point of view that gives the respondent Maria, who tells us about the great service provided by a woman to society when it has a child and should not affect their working status.

In the private sector: women were selected at the factory, textile centers, hairdressers, etc. They had a minimum level of education (Higher Bachelor). Women, who were lucky to finish High School or a secretarial course of 3 years, were highly regarded and could enter into a private company as a secretary or team leaders.  This is the case of Luisa, who after working 15 years in the same company managed to perform a post of team leaders.

In conclusion, the discrimination of women in the private sector was stronger than in the public one, so there was a clear disadvantage with men.  The role of women between 60´s and 70´s has been relegated to the laws that were issued by men and also made themselves. Today we can see how women are in higher education, so that has led us to experiment a step to be taken into account. From a cultural point of view the man always has enjoyed from a leading position in social and family structure. However the grown woman needs quality and stability in their life for that her welfare and positive energy will be increased, which will allow her spends to her business. Finally it should be clear that the incorporation of women into the world-work is an important and decisive step.