The 1960s and 1970s in Spain were a period of intense social mobilization against Franco’s dictatorship. The clandestine and democratic labour movement was the main political agent behind efforts to improve working conditions and to achieve a political transition towards democracy in Spain. However, within this context, domestic workers were alien to this process. The Francoist dictatorship did not consider domestic service to be a form of employment, and thus excluded maids from the labour laws and social protection measures that were reserved for workers and their families. This also meant that when the anti-Franco unions began to gain strength in mobilizing many sectors of the workforce, domestic service was not among them. However, the lack of concern from the main trade unions towards domestic workers does not mean that there were no alternatives for collective action outside the purview of traditional working-class organizations. The Young Christian Workers, a Catholic workers’ organization born in Belgium in 1924 that began to take a stand in Spain from the 1960s onwards against the dictatorship and in favour of democracy and socialism, did focus on domestic workers’ struggles.

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