My journey as a feminist is ongoing. It’s not something that happens all at once. Instead, it’s about working every day to see the world in a more equal way and to get rid of old-fashioned ideas. For the past 10 years, I’ve been consciously trying to be a feminist and encouraging others around me to do the same. For the last four years, I’ve been living in Anceu Coliving, a small village in northern Spain with just 100 people. Here, we’re working to make our community more feminist. Today, I’ll share how we’re doing this and how we’re creating a safe space where everyone feels welcome.
What is the feminist context in a rural area?
Living in our village as a woman, we’ve noticed something interesting. Because many people here move from place to place, it has actually helped women become more empowered. You see, in the past, our village used to be very poor. Most people had to leave to find better opportunities, and it was mostly men who succeeded. The ones who stayed behind were mostly women. This meant that women had to take care of everything at home – the family, the house, the kids, and the elderly.
Nowadays, we still see some small biases, like how it’s usually the women who cook for everyone in the village or manage the kitchens in the community house. They’re also the ones who are most involved in village activities and have a strong sense of community. They’re eager to keep contributing to the village’s well-being.
In this situation, we know right from the start that there are opportunities to make our village more feminist and to create more chances for everyone. With the support of the community, especially the women, we believe we can make small changes that will help build the village we dream of – a place where everyone can live freely.
Empowering Feminist Entrepreneurship: The Break Initiative at Anceu rural village
Our initial efforts to address feminist issues in our village stemmed from a European initiative known as “The Break.” This program involves supporting European entrepreneurs in developing their projects during a month-long stay in Spain, with a focus on making positive impacts in the local community.
“The Break” is an entrepreneurship fellowship program in Spain designed for EU resident women, with a value exceeding €7,000. Funded by the European Union and developed by Escuela de Organización Industrial EOI School, it is powered by The Break Alliance. This transformative program involves a 12-week entrepreneurship journey, including a 27-day work retreat in Spain, where participants engage in open innovation activities to address local challenges. Participants not only grow their businesses but also collaborate, learn, and have fun with like-minded entrepreneurs and locals.
Through this program, 32 European entrepreneurs came to our village, and together we tackled the challenge of feminism at various stages.
First phase: Crafting Feminist Ideals
Our first initiative during The Break experiencia at Anceu village involved developing the feminist manifesto for Casa do Pobo. Casa do Pobo is a public space open to all citizens. It is the place where people from the village come together for community gatherings such as workshops, culinary events, and leisure activities. This space consists of two areas: a large hall and a spacious kitchen. Typically, the kitchen is managed by the women of the village. We wanted to reimagine the feminist essence of this space. In doing to, so we decided to collaborate with the women of the village to create the feminist manifesto of this place .
To achieve this, we organized working sessions with female entrepreneurs and a group of 16 local women. During a collaborative workshop, we formed action groups where five entrepreneurs teamed up with one local woman. We conducted personal interviews on feminism. We used open-ended questions to uncover the strengths, principles, and stories of the women from the village of Anceu.
Second phase: embroidering feminism in rural areas.
During the same workshop, we also delved into the unique value of each woman in the village who participated in the initiative. To do this, we used art as a tool for connection, specifically embroidery. We partnered with feminist artist Maritza to facilitate the creative process.
Maritza is a Mexican artist who has been living in Galicia for several years. She is the founder of Bordadoras Feministas. It is a feminist embroidery club in Pontevedra. They use embroidery as a tool for social transformation, serving as a prominent example of feminist activism in our community.
Together with her, we created simple embroideries based on photographs of the women in the village, where each European female entrepreneur designed her own pattern. These embroideries were accompanied by small paper postcards that highlighted some of the most relevant concepts of women’s empowerment in the village.
Third phase: Feminist Empowerment through Art
Our feminist empowerment continued with the creation of a pictorial mural, once again collaborating with the same artist, Maritza. This time, we took a further step by painting a mural in the communal space to create a metaphor for feminist occupation. In other words, we have a mural representing feminism in this space and the feminist vision of a world where women are the ones making a thousand things happen, especially in our village.
Once again, all the female entrepreneurs and women from the village participated collectively. This time, embroidery was also added, creating silhouettes that are present throughout the mural to this day. These silhouettes represent the eight women who helped us on this second occasion. It’s known that they are them, but at the same time, the silhouette represents a whole, that whole being the women who have the strength to keep fighting for our feminist village.
Here you can see some pictures of the process
