Women's Day in Spain

                                                                                (Forrás: El PAÍS)

 

Taking advantage of the fact that this month was Women's Day, I would like to talk about how women's day it's been lately celebrated in Spain. However, before I begin, I would like to stress that everything expressed in this post is not intended to   represent all Spaniards

opinions and all Spanish culture on this day, but is much more an approximation of how I perceive women's day and the data offered by the various national media.

Women's day is conceived as a day to celebrate women, where thousands of people receive congratulatory messages. Receiving gifts from men, on the other hand, is a rare practice in Spain, and might even be patronising, as this day is a day to remember the struggle for gender equality. We should not forget that the commemoration of Women's Day milestone came after 129 women died in a fire at the Cotton factory in the USA, after a strike was declared at their workplace due to poor working conditions and the first National Woman's day was designated to honor this protest and all these women. 

Despite the fact that women's day demonstrations have been organized for many years, the way we understand women's day in Spain underwent a drastic change on 8 March 2018. This was due to the fact that on this day there was a record number of participants in the demonstrations, hundreds of thousands of people. The demonstrations spread to more than 120 Spanish cities and the streets were filled with people and banners with messages such as "We are the cries of those who are no longer here" or "You took so much from us that you ended up taking away our fear". 

 

                                                                    (Forrás: El País)

 

This was a turning point, as it highlighted women's widespread anger at gender inequality, increased social awareness of women's rights, and the institutional need to take further steps to achieve formal and material gender equality.  Women openly stated that they were not willing to accept their socially imposed roles, Spanish women were angry and willing to fight. I remember going to the demonstration in my hometown with my friends, I remember singing and shouting along with thousands of other women, I remember how, because of the number of people, I could not see the end or the beginning of the demonstration, and I especially remember feeling powerful and empowered by all the people around me who shared my rage at inequality and injustice.

Demonstrations have continued to be the focal point of women's day in Spain. It is a day to remember that only 8.8% of the largest companies in Spain were headed by women in 2022, that there is still wage parity, that women suffer from higher expectations and burdens at home, and, consequently, it is more common for women to be the ones to give up their careers for housework, how women are often only remembered in the artistic fields when it is feared that the "quota of women" will not be met and that the misogyny of the field will be palpable, among other consequences from this disparity. Although in the last decades much progress has been made in terms of equality between men and women, especially in formal equality, there is still much to fight for, as equality between the sexes is not a reality today.

I would like to end with a famous quote by Simone de Beauvoir: "Never forget that a political, economic or religious crisis will be enough to cast doubt on women's rights,  These rights will never be vested. You will have to stay vigilant throughout your life".