ON THE eve of last Thursday’s Women’s Day strikes and demonstrations across Spain, it was revealed that one of the country’s most entrenched gender barriers – that of stevedores at the Algeciras port, the last in Europe to have no women dockworkers – has been shattered.
The president of the Bay of Algeciras Port Authority, Manuel Morón, last Wednesday confirmed that a number of women were among the candidates to have passed the hiring exam for some 460 stevedore jobs on offer at the port. The exact number of women has not been confirmed but various press reports have given estimates ranging from 25 to 65.
