Género, violencia y trabajo femenino. «Mujeres solas» en Santa Cruz de La Palma a fines del Antiguo Régimen

Abstract

This paper aims to delve into the knowledge of the small community of ‘women without men’ of Santa Cruz de La Palma during the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century. On the one hand, socio-economic and demographic analysis reveals a large proportion of absent men and many female-headed households. These women survived by working in the silk industry, which formed a genuine putting-out system that was the basis of the city’s protoindustrial economy. On the other hand, the analysis of a cause of child rape provides a better understanding of the sociability of women without men and the use of mechanisms of protection and solidarity among them.