Tied to the leg of the bed. Thus she placed women in one of the numerous sexist jokes so common in the late Franco years. Cooking, washing, taking care of the children and husband, taking care of the elderly, supplying the family at the grocery store or grocery store, doing the laundry, ironing and making all kinds of sewing arrangements… that was the day to day of the housewife. What was known – and this is what the DNI reflected – was “their tasks”, even though those tasks were those of the entire family unit.
Although at that point the fight for equality had already spanned more than a century and feminism emerged as one of the great struggles in the last years of the dictatorship, the social role of women barely changed in Spain with the emergence of democracy. . It was neither a priority in the drafting of the Constitution, where men still take precedence over women in the succession of the Crown, nor did it stand out on the political agenda, which left for later aspects that should guarantee effective equality and that were then horses of battle of the most combative feminism such as divorce or abortion.
Not even the “change” proposed by the PSOE in the 1982 electoral campaign, with which it managed to sweep the polls and seal the democratic transition, was decisively committed to equality between men and women. His electoral program barely dedicated half a page out of 49 to “women,” with family planning centers as the star measure at a time when contraceptive measures and birth control were considered quite naturally women’s issues.
That the situation of women had to take a turn soon became evident to the Government of Felipe González, which already in October 1984 launched its first demographic study on “Social inequality in family and domestic life.” Their conclusions were as revealing as they were devastating: in the distribution of domestic tasks, practically all of the activities corresponded to women. “Taking out the trash” stood out as the only minimally shared task, since 9% of husbands did it.
Logically, the majority of those interviewed were clear that their situation was not in the political debate, to the point that 66% indicated that politicians cared little or very little about the daily lives of women. Although it could be even more significant that a resounding 88% declared themselves quite or very satisfied with their role as a housewife and also stated in a majority that they preferred it to working outside the home.
The study was carried out on a universe of 1,992 women over 18 years of age in charge of caring for their own home of different origins and social status residing in 136 municipalities in 17 autonomous communities. The distribution of the interviews was established with a criterion of population proportionality and the questionnaire mainly addressed the distribution of domestic tasks, the distribution of decision-making in the family, and care work for dependent family members.
The first questions already revealed the tremendous inequality that existed between men and women in the distribution of household chores, given that sweeping, dusting, scrubbing, washing the dishes, doing the laundry and ironing were the responsibility of women among the 83% and 87% of the cases, according to those interviewed. 92% took care of sewing arrangements and 88% of preparing lunch and dinner.
The care and feeding of the children and relations with the school also corresponded to the mother. From then on, all support for the housewife depended on the will of “other family members,” without specifying whether they were also women. Husbands, at most, collaborated to a margin always less than 10% in taking out the trash, cleaning shoes and taking care of the plants.
To the burden of domestic work, those interviewed added the mental burden of managing the home, since 64% stated that they were in charge of managing the domestic economy by setting daily expenses, while 41% were in charge of also setting monthly or annual savings. If it was time to tighten their belts, the majority were clear that the first thing to cut back on was their own wardrobe (30%), even more than on vacation (28%).
Regarding the care of elderly or sick people in the family, 59% of those interviewed who had someone like that at home indicated that they were responsible for their care. On the contrary, when the interviewees were the ones who had been sick, 74% stated that they had had to manage without help. When the case of urgently needing help was raised, daughters were placed above husbands in the respondents’ preference. Why give the husband a job when there are other women in the home?
In this complete dedication to home and family, the interviewees dedicated most of the day, to the point that 25% reported having only two or three free hours in their intense day, although 19% stated that they barely had any left for her one or even less. To reduce the time spent at home, most saw only one possibility: leaving things undone.
Involving the husbands did not seem like an option in this case either. Not even at times when the interviewees had been or were pregnant or caring for a baby. In these cases, the extraordinary help came in most cases from the mother (49%). In these circumstances, the involvement of husbands in household chores did not exceed 13%.
Despite everything, the housewives indicated that they felt satisfied in their role. 45% highlighted the advantage of being able to spend a lot of time with family and 24% having a lot of freedom. As negative aspects, 36% pointed out the monotony and 29% that they had to dedicate many hours to it. Despite everything, 46% said they were quite satisfied and 42% said they were very satisfied. Of course, 42% considered that men should provide “some daily help.” A mere wish with little or no prospect of coming true.
