Machine

The Alfa sewing machine factory, located in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, has a rich and significant history in the Basque industry, with a key role played by women in its development. Alfa was founded in 1920 by a group of gunsmiths from Eibar who decided to diversify their production in the face of the crisis in the gunsmith sector after the First World War.

The company began manufacturing sewing machines inspired by German models. In the 1950s, Alfa became the largest company in Eibar, with more than 1,000 workers. The factory produced around 50,000 sewing machines a year. Alfa expanded its production to other products such as bicycles, motorcycles, and household appliances.

Women played a crucial role in the Alfa factory. Many of them worked in the factory, in the assembly and quality control sections. Alfa established an apprentice school where both men and women were trained in various technical specialties. Women at Alfa enjoyed better working conditions than other industries at the time. For example, they were entitled to three months’ maternity leave with full pay. Some women also held positions of responsibility in the factory, although to a lesser extent than men. Working at Alfa enabled many women in Eibar and the surrounding area to achieve a certain economic independence and contribute significantly to the family economy. Although the original factory closed in 1985 due to financial problems, Alfa’s legacy and its impact on the lives of working women in Gipuzkoa live on. Alfa’s history represents an essential chapter in the region’s industrialization and the advancement of women’s labor rights in the Basque Country.

Domestic production machines and teleworking have had a significant impact on working life, especially for women. These developments have transformed the relationship between home and workplace over time. Some of these include sewing machines, which revolutionized domestic textile production from the mid-19th century and enabled many women to earn an income from home by doing sewing and repair work. Similarly, home looms, although less common than sewing machines, enabled small-scale textile production and were particularly relevant in rural areas and cottage industries. Knitting machines facilitated the production of knitwear at home, and many women used them for family consumption and to create garments for local sale. In parallel, personal computers, since the 1980s, have enabled various jobs to be done from home, such as word processing, graphic design, and programming, and have been instrumental in the expansion of modern teleworking.

The concept of teleworking emerged in the 1970s as a response to the oil crisis. Jack Nilles coined the term “telecommuting” in 1973, proposing “bringing the work to the worker” to reduce commuting. In the 1980s and 1990s, teleworking began to gain ground with the improvement of communication technologies; initially, it was limited to specific tasks such as data entry or customer service. However, the Internet and mobile devices expanded the possibilities of teleworking in the 21st century, allowing greater work flexibility and reconciling work and family. Teleworking has also offered job opportunities to women in rural areas or with care responsibilities. However, it has also posed significant challenges, such as the double burden of domestic and professional work. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated the adoption of teleworking globally, highlighting both benefits (flexibility, time savings on commuting) and challenges (isolation, difficulty in separating work and personal life).

The use of domestic production machines and teleworking has offered many women opportunities for economic independence and work flexibility. However, it has also posed challenges in terms of work-life balance and requires a redefinition of domestic and workspaces. These situations can disproportionately affect women due to social, economic, and cultural factors. They involve long working hours that can extend up to 16-18 hours a day, extremely low wages, often below the legal minimum, and poor working conditions, amounting to a kind of modern slavery.