Abstract/Summary

This thesis uncovers the anonymous voices of working-class women in Bizkaia whose everyday lived experiences had remained hidden because of the socio-political control and gendered state violence of the post-war period. Although they were subjected to state violence through different mechanisms implemented by the regime, they are able to reflect on their life stories in the first person and narrate their abilities and agency to face the darkest years of the dictatorship, from a non-violent resistance which has gone unnoticed by ordinary historiography. Through personal in-depth interviews and personal documents, this research project analyses women's experiences in public and private spaces as bearers of the Basque collective memory of the 1940s, reconstructing a heterogeneous mosaic of diverse ways to interpret and experience their lived stories. Thus, this research sheds light on their individuality, subjectivities and negotiations regarding the official patriarchal public discourse in the workplace, town square, school, church and at home. In addition, this qualitative research aims to unveil their individual acts of resistance that, although subtle, contributed to the survival of a cultural, local, linguistic, material, ideological and ethical Basque imaginary.