The mouthy maid. Domestic service workers in the Civil War and the post-war period

The aim of this paper is to show how the changes that took place in the Second Republic regarding the domestic service marked the use that Francoism was going to make of it as a platform for the re-education of the popular classes. In order to do so, I will mainly use archival and newspaper sources and the interpretative framework of studies on the social attitudes of Franco's regime. The diversification of women's models in the Republic affected domestic service workers who, among other aspects, were able to join trade unions for the first time in Spanish history and their work, albeit timidly, was regulated. Likewise, during the Civil War, the figures of the maids as informers and militiawomen appeared and left a great mark on society. So much so that the Republic came to be represented as a servant girl who rebelled against her masters. In conclusion, I argue that because of this national image, of domestic service as a metaphor for change and disorder, the dictatorship wanted to eliminate any relationship between domestic service and the labour sphere and used it as a platform for the framing and re-education of the daughters of the << other Spain >>. A Spain that was inconceivable without faithful servants.