The nurse Sanae El Hadi, representing the Atria Association of Lanzarote, has defended in the Parliament of the Canary Islands that women have a genetic predisposition to perform the role of caregiver in society. The statements, which were made within the framework of her intervention at the conference Those who care, those who attend, those who clean. Women in the service sector in the Canary Islands, aroused the indignation of one of the attendees.
During his presentation, El Hadi has related the role of women with the effects of progesterone and estrogens and has assured that the role of care dates back to prehistory.
"In prehistory, women stayed caring and the man went to hunt," he has assured, although investigations published in 2023 already warned that this statement had been an erroneous interpretation by historians and that women also went out to hunt.
El Hadi has also argued that "those two hormones, at a cerebral level, act with different feelings and emotions such as patience, understanding, calm... everything that is needed for caring. Fortunately, society has been evolving and there is already some male who dedicates himself to caring, but this will always be so because we have it genetically," El Hadi has said.
Outrage among the public: "I am squirming in my armchair"
In the audience, one of the women present has shown her disagreement with El Hadi's argumentation and has denounced the "romanticization" of caregiving and of the role of women that was being done in the conference, especially of the collective of chambermaids, she said.
"I can't contain myself because I'm squirming in the armchair. The chambermaids represent the economy of pain, the lack of mental health, making 60 beds or more... I'm tired of this romanticism. The genes? What genes? It always falls to us, it's tiring. I'm tired," she denounced.
"Housekeepers are pain, I can't stand my right hip, my knees, the pain, my head, making sixty beds or more", she added. "They don't look at us, they don't see us, we went on strike and the councilor wanted to impose minimum services on us", she pointed out regarding the demands of the housekeepers.
"A factory for the care"
In her speech, the nurse has insisted that women come "at a physiological and biological level with an engine and a factory for care" which also explains, in her opinion, "why the color red, pink, and violet is embedded in women's brains."
"And we like it so much because we collected fruits of those colors. Cerebrally and genetically we love those colors because they are in our brain. We feel like caring because those two hormones make us prepared to care. Those qualities of love, patience, calm are given to us by those two hormones," has stated, without citing any scientific study or author to support her claims.
"From our ancestors, women have always cared for the sister, the father, the disabled son, the husband… we have that role," the nurse elaborated, who considered it "important" that it be known "why" women "have that filter of caring."
In her opinion, "it's not because they have pointed the finger at us, but because of the wonderful and unfortunate hormones of progesterone and estrogens that help us to be mothers and have beautiful and wonderful qualities that only characterize women", she concluded.
The invisible work of the kellys
During the sessions, Marcía Díaz, a member of the Kellys collective of Gran Canaria, and the actress and presenter Yanely Hernández also participated.
In her speech, Díaz has claimed the recognition of the work that these workers perform in the tourism sector, considering that it continues to be an “invisible” labor despite sustaining an essential part of the islands' economy.
Díaz has pointed out that tourism is the main economic engine of the Canary Islands, but that its operation largely depends on cleaning and care tasks mostly performed by women.
“There is no tourism without care, there is no rest without cleaning, and there is no economy without the hands of women,” she has stated.
The representative of the collective has stressed that the chambermaids face long shifts and an effort that, in her opinion, does not receive sufficient recognition, and has demanded “respect, dignity and appreciation” for a job she considers essential.
