Women, Families and Social Welfare in Spain from the 18th Century to the Present

Abstract

ost historians coincide when they emphasize that a Welfare State (WS) has only existed in Spain since 1978, after the end of Franco’s dictatorship. A modern WS was established very rapidly in Spain. A significant group of Spanish politicians hoped to imitate a WS model when the triumph of neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism in the western world made people question the convenience of the WS itself. In spite of the governments’ efforts to consolidate the WS between 1978 and 1993, the experts (and public opinion) in Spain were then assuring that a large part of Social Welfare (SW) came from families. This explained, for example, that Spain was able to support high unemployment rates (22% in 1993) with insufficient aid from the State. These views have been shared by authors who differed greatly when considering the need for the WS. In any case, they also agreed that when families are referred to, this means that this task was taken on by women. M