Andalusian Women of Barbate between Patriarchal Spaces and Andalusophobia: Sewing Fishing Nets for Equality
Andalusian Women of Barbate between Patriarchal Spaces and Andalusophobia: Sewing Fishing Nets for Equality
Wednesday, 9 July 2025: 16:30
Location: FSE003 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
Oral Presentation
In Barbate, a fishing community on the Southern Spanish coast of Andalusia, traditional gender roles are heavily reflected in the labour market. Here, the sexual division of labour has been and is today marked by the fishing activities of the community where fishermen go to the sea and women -once employed in the processing activities of fish- are now hired for care-related jobs and cleanings in the touristic industry in the surrounding villages (usually off the books and seasonal). Women's economic independence is often undermined because of the excluding dynamics of the labour market caused both by structural unemployment and gender occupational segregation. In this context, an association of women is trying to make their way in the fishing sector by learning the traditional techniques of sewing fishing nets. They aim at opening new work possibilities for women in the local labour market, in the face of obstacles posed by traditional gender roles and structural discrimination of Andalusians (andalusophobia) in Spain, which results in fewer working possibilities, fewer public services and investments from the Spanish State.
The fieldwork to carry out the research was realised between February and April 2023, together with history of life interviews and a focus group with the association’s members.
The results underline the strengths and weaknesses of the group as well as existing obstacles and opportunities in their context. The study corroborates the literature about how women can expand their possibilities in the labour market: when a job becomes uninteresting, non-profitable or advantageous for men, then, women can get the chance to cover such positions. Furthermore, here the concept of andalusophobia is pivotal in the study -together with the one of gender occupational segregation- as it frames what looks to be personal discrimination into the bigger picture of structural discrimination of Andalusia and Andalusians.
The fieldwork to carry out the research was realised between February and April 2023, together with history of life interviews and a focus group with the association’s members.
The results underline the strengths and weaknesses of the group as well as existing obstacles and opportunities in their context. The study corroborates the literature about how women can expand their possibilities in the labour market: when a job becomes uninteresting, non-profitable or advantageous for men, then, women can get the chance to cover such positions. Furthermore, here the concept of andalusophobia is pivotal in the study -together with the one of gender occupational segregation- as it frames what looks to be personal discrimination into the bigger picture of structural discrimination of Andalusia and Andalusians.