The Bourgeois Family in Nineteenth-Century Spain: Private Lives, Gender Roles, and a New Socioeconomic Model

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the bourgeois family in liberal Spain. It contains an analysis of aspects such as the concept of family transmitted by liberalism; the relation between public and private life; and the different roles attributed to men and women in the family, in society, and in the economy. A unique insight into these phenomena can be gained from the author’s main research source, the private archives of the Olózagas, an important bourgeois family in the historical context of the establishment of liberalism in Spain. Revealing conclusions can be drawn from an analysis of these private records about the liberal conception of the family, the significance it acquired, the new moral values extolled by the bourgeoisie, and the objectives sought with the implantation in society of this model of the family.