Front: When the solution to combine work, care and militancy is to reinvent work.
- At a time when they lived in full militancy, after having separated paid work and the times of militancy in their daily lives, and when they became mothers, they began to create their profession in order to be able to work in hours of work the feminism that had previously worked militarily. The remedy, the exercise and the surveillance of the militancy, is as if it were juggling. “We were very comfortable in the feminist movement but all of a sudden we saw ourselves out of there, because we couldn’t keep up with that pace. Now we work in a space and a schedule that is right for us,” explained his colleagues. On 19 June an interactive tour was organized in tribute to the women who first left the Alarde de de Irun.
“We came from the feminist movement,” said Pare’s colleagues proud. “We’ve spent many years in Irun’s feminist movement. Each of us had our job and we began to be mothers and, due to the care work, at one point we ran out of space for militancy.”
There are three members of the association located on Pare Street. Two of them have three young children and the other one is pregnant. They are at a delicate moment, therefore, to bring everything together.
But they are on their way: at the beginning, everyone reduced the working hours they had in their profession so that they could spend some time on the tasks of the Pare association. And gradually, they are offering more and more to Parean: today what they do in this partnership is the only paid job for two of their members. But for the time being, surveillance tasks occupy most of their daily hours: “At the Pare Association we have decided that our full day will be 32 hours, as we want to give space to the tasks of care. And yet none of us have a 32-hour working week.”
The colleague has been satisfied with what is being done: “This work fills me with a lot and I am very proud. I was always thinking about it, but I was always afraid to leave the job and take the step. Now, I’m proud to start walking on a new path that everyone has chosen.”
The sovereignty of work is not the most convenient way, but this course has been particularly aware of its value: “The sovereignty of work is the main element of a habitable life. If it is already difficult to combine work and care, in the pandemic it has been virtually impossible. To be able to cope with this hard course, it has been essential for us to have that confidence among ourselves, to feel our project and to be able to organize it in our own way. We have particularly appreciated in this course the sovereignty of work, which is in our hands.”
Two formations: militancy and academic
“We in the first feminist movement were doing projects from militancy, practice and illusion.” As they needed qualifications to be able to work with the institutions, they began to perform the Master of Equality “so and we have combined both: the backpack we already had is very valuable to us and gives what the titles do not give; and we have added a degree to demonstrate to the institutions that we have the opportunity to work”.
Some of the projects launched by the feminist movement have created what they are now doing in their working day:
Interactive walks
“About 12 years ago we realized that in the streets of the town there were almost no women’s names. We entered the municipal archive with a historian of the people, got some names, got in touch with all the political parties and sent them a report with the proposals for names. Over the years, the women we propose have the street in Irun today. In the past, there were three women who appeared on the street and now there are twelve, some progress has been made, but there is still work to be done,” said the members of the association.
These women, despite being on the street, realized that in the village no one knows about their contribution. To respond to this need, the members of the Pare association created a documentary, presented it in all the schools of Irun and made a tour to round it with all the schools.
As a development of this tour, they have created interactive walks for every citizen and citizen: “On our website there are walks of this kind that anyone can do by making several stops in the city, and in audio or in PDF you can collect their story.” Irun schools appreciate and take advantage of this material. Among the women who have a street name there are individuals and collectives who work in the trades that women have done throughout history: purse seines, clothes cleaners, enclosures...
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first departure of women in Irun's alarming. “To commemorate the anniversary, to pay tribute to these women and to claim that the struggle must continue (because it does not end until we achieve the egalitarian alarm), we have organised an interactive tour in the city where we gather what these 25 years have given and pay tribute to these 57 women.” It will be held on Saturday, June 19, at 11:00 in the morning, from the Plaza de San Juan. To participate you need to enroll in info@parean.eus.
With edges
As seen in the way they work and in the projects they carry out, feminism is always part of their activity, but other areas are also worked: “The project we now have in our hands is related to school segregation. In our projects we try to combine the issue of immigrants with that of people mayores.En definitively, we are an association that works for those groups that are on the margins, seeking their well-being.”
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What it does: Our aim is to achieve the real well-being of women, immigrants and the elderly through innovative projects.
Number of employees: 3
Founded in 2015, the Association was established in 2020, but its workers joined it.
Location: Irun.
Contact: info@parean.eus
