Determinantes de la participación femenina en el mercado de trabajo en la Galicia rural y urbana de 1924

Abstract

This article provides new data on the female labour activity rate, obtained by analysing the determinants of female participation in rural and urban labour markets in Galicia in 1924. We selected five municipalities (two cities and three towns) to represent different economic models. The two larger hubs are A Coruña, a city with industry, services and a commercial port; and Ourense, a provincial capital in the interior of the region. The smaller, more rural municipalities analysed are Bueu, a good example of the region’s industrialization model focused on fishing, fish processing; Padrón, which combines agriculture, textiles, and tanning sectors; and Nigrán, which is eminently agrarian. By combining demographic data (Nominative Population Census of 1924) with other sources, this article corrects the female activity rate in agriculture and the fishprocessing industry. The revised female labour participation rates are higher, surpassing 50% in rural municipalities and 30% in cities. We also analyse rural and urban labour markets from a gender perspective, identifying the main male and female occupations. Finally, this research explores the accuracy of the predominance of the “male breadwinner” model in this region in the 1920s.

Gender, work, and family economies: wet nurses in rural Galicia (1850–1900)

“…The expansion of Galicia’s assistance system in the years 1777–1816 laid the foundation for what would become, after 1822, a regulated and structured labour market for wet nurses. This expansion coincided with a period in which it became increasingly difficult for women to find work in domestic service or the rural textile industry (Muñoz-Abeledo, Taboada and Verdugo 2015; Dubert, 2006). This encouraged the gradual development of the occupation of wet nursing for women in rural districts, until, by the middle of the nineteenth century, it had become a specialised job and, as such, was recorded in the official bulletins of the different Galician provinces 24…”