A silent revolution: Memories of feminist and neighbourhood activism, from the Transition to the 15M movement in Barcelona and its industrial belt

Abstract

During the transition to democracy in the seventies, the neighborhoods and towns of Barcelona and its industrial belt women set up groups and committees, where they linked the demands of the neighbourhood movement with those of the burgeoning feminism at the time. These demands allowed them to experiment and develop democratic and self-management practices, and to expand the boundaries of the welfare state by gaining rights such as the right to birth control. Forty years later, these women are facing a curtailment of these rights, criticism of the Transition, a review of their own activist track record, and the need to look back on their struggle and pass it on to younger generations.