Resumen de Working women in the factories and home workshops of Catalonia in the 19th and first third of the 20th centuries

Albert Balcells i González

• The contribution of female labour to Catalan industrialisation was very important in both the textile industry and the garment-making industry. Likewise, in the early 20th century, the tertiary sector offered women new chances for salaried jobs. This article offers an overview of the evolution of female labour at factories and home-based workshops with its specific problems, the resistances it had to overcome, the influence of the purportedly protective legislation and the consequences of women joining the workforce from the 19th century to the 1930s.