Almeria housewives hang up their aprons

THE ongoing difficult economic climate in Almeria may have increased the number of men on the dole queues, but the opposite is true when talking about women.

Almeria Province has one of the highest rates of employment amongst women in Spain, with 57.8 per cent out at work.

This is blamed in part to the financial crisis meaning they can no longer afford to be housewives.

In Andalucia, some 300,000 families have no income, as none of the members are working and their unemployment benefits have run out. This means that many women who would normally not have gone out to work will now jump at the chance.

Since 2008 the percentage of women working has risen steadily to 52.93 per cent in Spain, according to the Working Women’s Profile Report carried out by employment agency Adecco.

Meanwhile, employment amongst men has fallen to 67.3 per cent. In 2009, 100,000 women who were previously housewives joined the national workforce and in 2010 and 2011, another 170,000 and 195,500 respectively, amounting to almost half a million women who have left their household tasks over the past three years.

In Andalucia, in 2011, 34,600 former housewives went out to work. Of the female workforce in Spain, 1,868,000 are employed part-time, which is more than double the amount of men working part-time (590,500).

However, this is not often because women attempt to combine their jobs with spending time with their children or looking after the home, but rather because they are unable to find a full-time job.

By Jennifer Leighfield
Jennifer@euroweeklynews.com