For centuries, the job of washerwoman was one of the most arduous professions carried out by women. In Madrid, after collecting clothes from private homes or convents and hospitals, they had to take them to the Manzanares River in large sacks to be washed. There they spent long days completely soaked, kneeling on benches placed in the riverbed and exposed to the harsh winter weather. Chilblains and respiratory diseases did not prevent them from handling the wet clothes, sheets and towels. Garments were lathered with soda or potash, beaten and brushed, rinsed and hung, making this a heavy mechanical job. This female work was key to the subsistence economies of the time, to such an extent that the Madrid City Council reserved an important part of the washing benches for poor families in the 18th century, although it was the neighbouring towns of Madrid, such as Hortaleza, which were mainly in charge of cleaning the Court’s clothes. In the middle of the 18th century these banks in Madrid became private, leased for years to a few businessmen, and in order to access them the laundresses had to pay. In 1750, in the part of the river shown in the video there were around 1,142 washing benches, which gives an image of the concentration of workers in this place. The washhouses were small buildings made of reeds and poles for hanging clothes that grew to accommodate a large number of workers to whom the tenant also sold soap. The misery of the washerwomen’s work was hidden by the liveliness and colour of the place, where their children were also present, which attracted the attention of all travellers visiting the capital, especially romantics. The video, 3.51 minutes 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/ and to which we refer for this description.

Collection: Aplications

Project: 4. Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe., 8. Women and the change for gender equality in Europe.

Chronology: XVIII, XIX

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE9KsQORZWM

Resource type: Video

Format: Multimedia

Source: Madrid, Ciudad de las Mujeres

Language: Spanish

Owner: Francisco García González (Modernalia)

Copyright: Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Abstract: Video about the washerwomen of Madrid in the 18th and 19th centuries

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