You couldn't have picked a better topic for me ! My dad's from Spain and I've been there probably about a million times since I was born. The first thing one has to take into account is Franco Francisco Bahamonde and his little imposed (and illegal I might say in another forum) National Catholicist and fascist state. Spain was the last fascist state to fall after WW2.
Also, you interview any government offical about their actions, and they're goung to say they're fantastic.The socialists ran my dad's little village in Andalucia for years and made a real crap job of it- I didn;t see any impromvements in my Aunt's life until the municipal government changed and the local economy improved in general.
I really don't like the implication that Spanish women are more disempowered - they're pretty much in the same position as Canadian women, with similar problems- access to affordable healthcare (they have the same funding and staffing problems), poverty, etc.
It is also a myth that Spanish women have large flocks of children- it is the exception to the rule. They have as many as Canadian women do- a max of five, usually 2 or three like my abuelita (granny) did.
quote:
The push for gender equality in one of Europe's most macho cultures comes as internal and outside forces are creating seismic social shifts: Spanish women are taking greater control of their own lives by waiting longer to marry and having fewer children.
Frankly, if one puts Canada where the word Spain was in this article, it works pretty well in most cases- after all how many female CEO's are there in Canada. Domestic violence is as big an issue here as it is there- it is a very old (dating from the Spanish Inquisition old) myth that Spanish men are any more violent that canadian men.
I don't think one can generalize that this applies to all of Spain- especially with the difference between north and south, city and rural- because there is a real difference in terms of economics espcially. Men tend to leave the pueblos to go to the cities for work, and leave the women behind to tend to their aging parents.
And if workdays stretch into late at night, it's because the traditional spanish work day goes from maybe 9 am to 1pm (lunch) then siesta ( especially in the summer when at least in the south it can get to 50 degrees celsius), and then maybe 4 or five pm until 9pm.
Email this thread to someone!
posted 09 October 2006 11:29 AM
