Biblioteca de Mujeres

Information

The Biblioteca de Mujeres was created in 1985 with the aim of gathering the highest possible number of documents on women, and particularly to:

gather the Culture and Knowledge women have produced throughout time,
operate as a Herstoric Memory, especially regarding the History of Women in Spain,
and gather and preserve documents which other libraries discard, like those produced by the feminist movement and women's groups.

The BdM's collection consists of approx. 25.000 volumes, and also magazines, comics, posters, badges, stamps... It includes some works from the XIX century and the first third of the XXth century which are out of print today, and which were purchased to antique dealers in Used & Rare Bookshops and The Rastro street market, and in Madrid Book Fairs.

The headquarters of the BdM was from 1985 to 1997 at Barquillo 44, where the BdM was founded, a historical site for the Feminist Movement in Madrid. At the end of 1997, due to a lack of space to store the collection, we moved to Villaamil 12, the head office of the Consejo de la Mujer de la Comunidad de Madrid (Women's Council), where we signed a 10-year agreement of collaboration. However, in 2005 we were evicted. After failing to find an appropriate space to host the BdM, and considering we did not have the money needed to rent some premises, the BdM was donated to the (Instituto de la Mujer (Women's Agency) in November 2006, an agency which agreed to the aims and targets of the BdM.

The Biblioteca de Mujeres has been a direct witness of women's struggles since the beginnings of Feminism in Spain and also because this "small but precious collection" is the result of hundreds of women's volunteering throughout the last two decades, which means thousands of hours of unpaid work.

The importance and value of the BdM has been acknowledged by numerous researchers in their published work, and also by the fact that many of its documents have been borrowed for exhibitions such as the ones organized by the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) — e.g. on Women's Suffrage (2003) and On Libraries during Wartime (2005).

A warm thank you to Mujer Palabra, who created and maintains this website.

Telephone: (mobile Madrid, Spain) 618 573 477
E-mail: bibliomujer[ARROBA]gmail.com
Website: https://www.mujerpalabra.net/bibliotecademujeres/

Marisa Mediavilla Herreros por Pilar García Moreno (2018)