From leiteiras to farm owners: Rural Women and Dairy Production in Galicia (Spain) in the Twentieth Century

Presented in Spanish by Ana Cabana Iglesia, Associate Professor of History, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (Spain).

During the 20th century, Galicia became one of the largest milk producers in Spain and Europe. The story of dairy specialization has already been told, but it lacks a perspective that includes the gender perspective. Our proposal is to get closer to the roles played by the women who lived in the towns in which the production and sale of milk marked the future of society and the rural economy. We will approach the evolution that occurred from the dawn of the century, when these women became leiteiras, until the last quarter of the century, at which time they had to begin to claim the right to be owners of their livestock farms on which they worked. Between one moment and another, women continued working, milking and caring for cattle, but they became absolutely invisible subjects. Their subalternity had to do both with endogenous factors, such as gender discourses and legislation during Franco’s dictatorship, and with generic and universal processes, such as the enormous gender inequality that marked the adoption of the technological innovation package in agriculture, known as “Green Revolution”.

Also sponsored by the Axinn Center for the Humanities