Estrella Carrasco Ximénez de
Sandoval
Ces Don Bosco
Early Childhood Education Degree
Group: 2nd.A
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WORKING WOMEN
DURING 60´S AND 70´S
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How to understand the discrimination problem in
Spain
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The evolution of women´s role from Franco´s Regime to nowadays, is a
clear indicator of how society has changed in the last 50 years in Spain. Knowing
this evolution can help us to understand the present situation in Spain, in
which women´s discrimination is not overcome at all. The 60´s an 70´s decades
were periods where women passed from their families’ subordination to an almost
independent role; that´s why hearing the testimony of two women who started
working during these years, could help us to understand clearly, how the
society understood the “new” women´s role.
The chosen women are, Luisa who started to work in the 70´s in private
companies because her family needed more incomes to live and María, who started
in the 60´s firstly in a leisure and sport club and a few months ago, after
passing state exams, she started in a state department. So we have private and
public perspectives.
To understand the situation we have to take a look at Franco´s regime where
women were consigned to be a morality model. After Civil War any individual
autonomy was keeping off: they couldn´t work at night neither work when they
got married, nor hold position in the direction of companies nor sign a
contract without the authorization of their husbands. Step by step women were
wining some rights, introducing them into different occupations, getting some
freedom to decide her life… The arrival of Constitución of 1978 where the
equality of people where proclaimed was the beginning of the women´s
transition.
Before Spanish Civil War, although women could attend to the university
it was very strange to find them there. As María declared “my grandfather
didn´t permit to my mother to go to the university. My mother told me that the
few women that attended must went with a woman who accompanies them.”
After Civil War, the presence of women at university was more usual but
always in “women’s degrees” like nursery, pharmacy, etc. María commented to us
that she knew the first agricultural engineer in Spain and how she had to prove
all the time that she was good at Mathematics because to the people´s mind of
these years “women were worth less for math”.
About work and companies, we can see two different perspectives: public
and private work. To get a job in the state bureau, you had to pass a
competitive exam as today. After passing the exam, you got an employ in one of
the state departments. From Maria´s point of view this was the kind of job
where there was less discrimination, although “there always was a man who told
to the women silly comments” but it was usual so women didn’t pay attention
because no one would helped them.
Given that, there were only few women that went to the university, the
lack of women in high positions of the state departments was notorious. María
didn’t remember any female boss during all her career; only one on the top of
her department. She observed that her boss had to start in her place with a hard
pose to be taken seriously. But this happened at the end of the 80´s almost 20
years before the period we are talking about.
The private company was different. There, the discrimination was
remarkable. Women were recruited as cleaning staff or secretaries. There were
women as Luisa that started as a secretary, worked hard to demonstrate her
value to the company, receiving more responsibility with the same salary.
Meanwhile she had male colleagues that were promoted in all respects.
The problem was not only not to be respected as a worker, but not to be respected
as a person. If you had a problem with a boss or with a mate –what we know
today as “sexual harassment”- you were
alone because nobody would help you; for sure you´d probably be accused of
provoking. Luisa remembered she had a problem with a colleague. She didn´t let
him go his way; a few years later he became his boss. She had many conflicts
working with him.
In the family context things were not different. Even though the
prohibition of work after getting married was abolished some years ago, it was
very usual for women to stop working when they got married or have sons. The
wife or mother´s role was more important. Women left their work to care for
their homes as Luisa did. There they had a 24 hour job without payment and
sometimes without recognition.
Other people like María decided to continue with their work. Her husband
didn’t oppose to her decision but neither encouraged her. It was difficult to
understand that a woman wanted to have an identity beyond that of mother or
wife. For Maria it was her salvation because some years later she became a
widow with 5 children. Other women got divorced when the Divorce Law was
approved in 1981[i].
Keeping their job helped them to maintain their independence.
Discrimination is also manifested in wage differentials in general in
private companies. For example, a textile labor ordinance established, in 1970,
that in the case that women undertake "functions of the male" they would
receive a salary of seventy percent[ii].
Luisa that worked in a transport company recognized that the only two women
that worked in the company earned less pay.
Women also have another disadvantage, as workers, compared to men: they
become pregnant and have children. María gave us a very important though about
this matter “We have to change our mind about women because societies need men
and women to survive. We can see it now that Spain has an aging society. When a
woman has a child, she´s giving one of the most important services to society. She
is ensuring the survival of society and this is not granted to women”.
In conclusion, after Franco´s dead the women´s struggle to abolish the discrimination
has been notorious. From the first years were women left their jobs to get
married and have sons –this is depend on their husbands in all respects– to the
acquisition of their own identity and independence, women have suffered many
years of inequality and harassment. Knowing history through first hand
resources we can understand the past and improve the future.
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