The video, which is chronologically long, is part of “Madrid, Ciudad de las Mujeres”, a cultural and tourist application where the traces of women in the city of Madrid are recovered http://madridciudaddelasmujeres.es/. As indicated in the presentation on the website, to which we refer for this description, the Real Fábrica de Tabacos de Madrid was originally built as the Real Fábrica de Naipes y Aguardientes until 1809, when Joseph Bonaparte decided to transform it into a tobacco factory. Initially, snuff was produced for the grinding of which male labour was employed, but with the popularisation of the so-called burning tobacco, women began to enter these factories, as they proved to be more skilful and quicker at rolling cigars, they were cheaper labour, and they were supposed to be more docile and submissive. Women gradually replaced the men, making up almost the entire workforce. The tobacco factory became the first feminised industry in Spain and the one with the largest workforce in Madrid. Initially, production was manual, which allowed the cigarette-makers a flexibility in their work that made it easier to combine their working day with all their household chores and care work. Thus, the workshops were at the same time a nursery, a breastfeeding room and a dining room. But the arrival of mechanisation in 1887 transformed everything that had gone before. With a pleasant and informative tone, this 3.35 minute video, like other content on the website, fulfils the objective of learning collective and personal stories, anecdotes and emblematic places in Madrid through the women.

Collection: Aplications

Project: 3. Rural world and urban world in the formation of the European identity., 8. Women and the change for gender equality in Europe.

Chronology: XIX

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nibXZBzBrYQ

Resource type: Video

Format: Multimedia

Source: Madrid, Ciudad de las Mujeres

Language: Spanish

Owner: Francisco García González (Modernalia)

Copyright: Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Abstract: Short video on the women who worked in the tobacco factory in Madrid

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