Author: Leah Pattem
Versión del artículo en castellano aquí
Carrying a paper copy of my gender-based violence survey, I visited the offices of Sedoac yesterday, in Orcasitas. I was there to meet Edith, who is a member of the first domestic workers association that has offered to help me with my survey.
“You’ll find that about 80% of your respondents will say they’ve been victims of gender-based violence,” she told me. “I hope it’s less, but this is the reality we are facing as domestic workers.”
Today, I’m launching the first ever attempt to create a Spain-wide database on gender-based violence experienced by both documented and undocumented migrant domestic workers, almost all of whom are women, yet who have never been considered in data on this subject before.
Spain has the largest number of domestic workers in the EU – over 600,000 – who are mainly in Madrid and Barcelona. Many live in their employers’ homes, making them especially vulnerable. Although Spain’s government has introduced progressive new labour laws, these measures still do not provide adequate protection for many domestic workers, who continue to face systemic violations.
No one should be subjected to illegal actions simply because they are irregular, yet this remains the reality for almost all domestic workers without papers. Furthermore, living and working under the same roof as their abuser, their experiences of abuse often go unnoticed and unaddressed.
Of the 18 million domestic workers in the EU, 70% find themselves in an irregular situation. In Spain, 96% of domestic workers are women, and 45% are migrants. Victims rarely come forward and, when they do, it’s at their own risk. Beyond this, obtaining legal or psychological support in the aftermath of GBV is almost impossible.
So, what can be done?
First, we need to know the scale and severity of this situation. So, how do we track GBV against undocumented domestic workers without causing risk or retraumatisation? By creating a simple, straight-forward survey, we aim to reach as many people as possible over the next four months. With hundreds, potentially thousands of participants, we hope to uncover the scale and severity of GBV that undocumented domestic workers experience at work.
This ambitious project is the most extensive investigation yet into GBV faced by both documented and undocumented female migrant domestic workers in Spain. My counterparts in Italy and Greece will do the same, and we will launch our results later this year.
Would you like to help?
Please share this survey widely.
This survey is for any person who currently works as a domestic worker (regardless of immigration status) or who has worked as a domestic worker in the last 10 years. It will take just 5-10 minutes. All answers are completely anonymous and will only be visible to our team members.
If you or someone you know would like to participate in our survey, you can find the online versions below, or you can also download a PDF version and submit it to hola@madridnofrills.com
English survey:
👉 Click here for the online Google Forms version
Download the PDF version below:
Survey in Spanish:
👉 Click here for the online Google Forms version
Download the PDF version below:
Support
If you have experienced any form of domestic violence at work and would like support, call:
- 016 for advice on gender-based violence (free, untraceable) for all regions of Spain
- 900814815 for legal advice from College of Lawyers in all regions of Spain
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