On January 24, the Argitan Women's Advisory Center of Barakaldo (Bizkaia) presented the balance of its activity in 2018. The data show the lack of institutional resources to care for women in appropriate conditions and from a feminist perspective.

Most women who have come to Argia in 2018 for counseling have been more motivated for psychological reasons. Women seeking psychological care have been 39%, 8.7% more than in the same period of 2017. The members of the Mental Health Advisory Center have pointed out that individual and collective care for psychological reasons has intensified for another year, evidencing the need for work in this field. The balance reflects, among other things, attention to problems of anxiety, depression and self-esteem, “derived from economic, labor and personal circumstances”.

Argitan is clear that one of the main reasons why consultations are conducted for psychological reasons are increased year after year: “Both Osakidetza and municipal resources do not specifically address the social problems affecting women.” As they have stressed, the institutions do not adequately address problems related to male violence, precariousness, relationships with partners and divorces. Moreover, they have denounced that some of these problems "perpetuate".

They have added that several institutions, such as the City Council of Barakaldo, the Ertzaintza, the Basque Government or Osakidetza, allocate to Argitu many women, making visible the lack of resources to attend from a feminist perspective and under appropriate conditions.

Domestic staff as the axis of the care service

After psychological care, legal care has been one of the main reasons for the consultations. Legal and labor care often goes hand in hand, and the sum of both reaches 45.9% of the consultations in 2018.

In this area, out of every ten consultations, at least nine have been carried out by household employees. Argitan stressed that this sector has the least labour and social rights and warned that abuse and violence are often experienced in the households where they work. In view of this situation, they have pointed out that one of the axes of the Counseling House is information to household employees. The profile of workers in this sector has been, to a large extent, that of migrant women who perform care tasks, and has warned that because they have this profile, workers suffer different cases of marginalization. This, in the words of Argitan, shows how little value is given to the custody of people and life.

Beyond the domestic workers, the precarious situation experienced by the women who have cared for them should be highlighted. Of the total number of people cared for, about 58% are unemployed or pensioners, while only 42% are workers of the company. Among the latter, low wages and occasional working hours predominate. That is why, both workers and the unemployed, many need financial support to deal with economic problems: 8.7% of the consultations are motivated by the need for information on social benefits.

These data are a reflection of the precarious situation experienced by women and that “leads them to suffer a risk of poverty, especially when they interrupt their relationships with partners”.

Ruptures in partner relationships, risk factor

The cessation of partner relationships not only leads women to precariousness, but also to situations of violence. Separation or divorce consultations account for 25.9 per cent of legal consultations. This type of consultation is motivated not only by issues related to the economic situation caused by the disruption of the relationship between partners, but also by shared custody and the need to report on the custody of children. “Behind these information needs lies psychological and physical ill-treatment,” explains Argitan’s report.

As she explained, women often have difficulty in identifying the male violence they suffer, and such ill-treatment affects not only women, but also individuals in custody. With this in mind, this data would only be “the tip of the iceberg”. As a sample of this item, the following data: In 2018, at the Argitan Women's Advisory House, 38 women from Barakaldo have explicitly denounced being subjected to male violence.

Lighting requests

Argitan has called on institutions to meet the needs of women at risk of poverty and not to unduly obstruct social emergency aid or the IGR, to be sufficient to meet their needs and to expand rapidly; to ensure emergency services, reception resources, free public childcare and nursing homes and public and social nursing homes.