Women and Labour in the Enlightenment. “Atlantic Model” by Campomanes in the Asturian Reality

In his work “Discurso sobre el fomento de la industria popular”, Pedro Rodriguez de Campomanes made a distinction between the woman from the South of Spain, who lived in “seclusion, idleness and superstition”, and those from the North that he said “lived generally dedicated to their labour”. About the latter he also noted that they practiced innumerable trades taken into consideration as “mannish” for the period; farmed, took care of livestock, transported goods, sold, spun, and according to the author, in maritime provinces they even fished.Myth or not, the truth is that the “model” of Atlantic woman that Campomanes represented could be seen in Asturias in the middle of the 18th Century.This essay aims to present a view of the female professional structure in the Enlightenment. The statistical Century par excellence in the Early Modern, in which analyzing the documentation we will prove how the model of woman described by Campomanes was a reality in Asturias in this period. Although we ignored those economic activities which did in “informal way”, we hope to achieve an important contribution to Women's History in the Early Modern.