Women and the sea in Bizkaia during the 18th century

The image used as a resource is the cover of a Final Degree Project carried out by Miren Aintzane Eguiluz Romero and directed by Inés Pellón González at the University of the Basque Country. The aim of the project is to vindicate women in the marine field, where they have traditionally been relegated to a secondary role in history books. Using Bizkaia in the 18th century as a study space, it analyses a world as closed to men as that of the sea, as well as the rejection of women to carry out any function related to it, as they were considered incompetent, inadequate and clearly inferior. However, their presence in this type of spaces and tasks is demonstrated despite the fact that they did not enjoy any professional consideration. Their work in the ports, as fish sellers, fisherwomen, boatwomen, stevedores, etc., meant that they were always present in the life of the communities. Specifically, the Biscayan boatwomen were women who were usually joined by other women dedicated to the transport of goods and who also worked with the men, lowering and raising the boats that entered the estuary or trading with the goods in the various towns along its shores. Women, as the author points out, who must have had similar knowledge to the sailors of their time, although their image has been masked in a world of clichés.

Collection: Images

Project: 8. Women and the change for gender equality in Europe.

Chronology: XVIII

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University and Postgraduate

Link: https://addi.ehu.es/handle/10810/20760

Resource type: Image

Format: Pdf

Source: Eguiluz Romero, M. A. (2021). La mujer y la mar en Bizkaia durante el siglo XVIII. Supervivencia, desaprobación y rechazo, TFG, Universidad del País Vasco

Language: Spanish

Date: 2021

Owner: Rosa Ana García García-Brizuela (Modernalia)

Abstract: Women, work at sea and their forms of survival, but also the different forms of disapproval and rejection existing in a society such as the Basque one. Image of the cover of the research work. Pasages boatyard. Engraving by E. Gómez included in Juan Mañé y Flaquer's book El Oasis, Viaje al País de los Fueros (1879).

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