Barcelona photographer Pilar Aymerich is trying to identify the woman in one of the best-known images from the 1976 Catalan Women’s Conference, held at the University of Barcelona. The photo shows a woman kneeling to mop the floor during a debate on women’s roles in the labour market, and Aymerich still hopes to give her a copy of the picture.
The conference took place from 27 to 30 May 1976, just six months after Franco’s death and three months after the National Police’s violent response to amnesty and freedom demonstrations, known in the international press as the Battle of Barcelona. The feminist movement chose the university setting partly because it believed the academic venue would make police intervention less likely.
Aymerich was the official photographer for the event because of her feminist background and professional standing. She has said the assignment initially seemed routine, with seated audiences, a presidential table, busts of prominent men and a faded painting of the Immaculate Conception on the main wall. More Catalonia news
The mopping scene was a spontaneous performance by Las Niakas, a theatre group made up of three actresses who rehearsed in an attic above a bar in Ciutat Vella. They joined a session on workplace inequality, and the actress in the photo used a mop patented in Spain in 1964 by Manuel Jalón.
The image was not an immediate media hit. Aymerich said the feminist debate received little attention at the time, and the photograph did not gain wider recognition straight away, even though the first issue of Interviú magazine had just reached newsstands that week. The conference also included other sessions, such as one organised by Leonor Taboada on genital self-exploration using mirrors and speculums, which ended up taking place in corridors and bathrooms.
Aymerich says she tried to find the actresses so she could give them a copy of the developed photo, as she often did, but without success. She still hopes this anniversary will help identify the woman in the frame. For background on the venue, see the University of Barcelona: University of Barcelona.