Galicia’s Widows at the end of the Spanish Ancien Régim

Abstract

In the Galicia of ending of Old Regime the widows almost represented 9% of the feminine population, similar percentage to the rest of Spain. Also, since the Castilian legal ordering were applied, in this aspect they were not distinguished either of those of other peninsular territories. The documentation available for their study, in essence, the same one of social history, contributes more information on the urban widows - who were minority- that on the rural ones, and more on the familiar and social life that on the feelings, ways of life or mental and religious universe of the widows. A characteristic element in Galicia is the high percentage of widows head of household, who could surpass in some regions to 25% of the homes. Between the widows of the field the agricultural dedication was the predominant one. Those that lived in the cities, with the exception of a reduced number of women pertaining to the nobility and commercial bourgeoisie, they worked for “gaining their life” in little qualified employments, barely remunerated, sexually segregated, and in which the guild’s statutes were very weak or they did not exist.