“I really like it when the lady came down and knocked on my door and said: Teresa, am I doing well? And she took off her fur coat. And they were wearing those beautiful dresses and necklaces, and since she knew that I liked her so much, well... before leaving for the Liceu I had to go in and see how I saw her. It is the testimony of Teresa Abelló, born in 1917 in La Figuera, in Priorat. Her job as her maid occupied humble women like her, who began working when they were still children. The 1930 registry of Reus, for example, indicates that 65% of the maids were between eleven and twenty-five years old.
Abelló is one of the protagonists of the essay Anar aserve: minyones a Catalunya, 1900-1940 by Montserrat Duch (Tarragona, 1959). How is it possible – the historian asks – that women are still being blamed, often in the media, for the fact that “since they worked” the birth rate has decreased, school failure has increased, and dropouts have increased. of older people?
The answer, according to Duch, is due to the validity of gender stereotypes: the invisibilization of female work and the persistence in the collective imagination of the sexual division of labor that entrusts women with the care and social reproduction of life. The volume Pa i roses. Asking them for a further history of 20th century Catalonia wants to contribute to breaking these and other preconceived views. These are a dozen essays like the one mentioned, published in the last decade, arranged according to the period they address and covering the entire 20th century.
The topics address sexuality and secularization, the obstacles for women in accessing university in Spain, the feminization of Catholicism, gender repression in Catalonia during the first Franco regime, the situation of Catalan teachers who were excluded by the dictatorship. As well as the repression of women during the Civil War, the fight for their rights and a panoramic look at feminisms throughout the last century.
Montserrat Duch has an extensive career in historical studies on the role of women in Catalonia and is coordinator of the research group Ideologies and Society in Contemporary Catalonia (Isocac). The professor of History at the Rovira i Virgili University admits that in class she likes to explain feminism as a social movement that has contributed decisively to the construction of citizenship. And, likewise, that it pursues a global reconstruction of the history of Catalonia, regardless of subordinations and mythifications, also of gender.
Delving deeper into the role of women is key to achieving this. Duch, however, understands that it is a task she does not do alone. That is why the study is presented with a portal on contemporary Catalan historians and their respective areas of work. In the last forty years, especially, a lot of progress has been made.
Hilda Agostini's biography. The weapons of reason of a republican, protestant and freemason teacher by Cèlia Cañellas and Rosa Toran or Trencant barreres. Pioneering women in Catalonia in the 20th century by Soledad Bengoechea, are some examples, which we have reviewed recently. The field to study, however, is still vast.
This is where this compendium takes over. On the one hand, to make the common reader aware that there are some views that are still not very visible, but they are there. And, on the other hand, to challenge the young waves of researchers to find in each of the essays starting points for new work. This is the thread that I have drawn, says the professor. But what lies beyond? The interest in following the path and obtaining more answers is the true objective of this volume.
