ABSTRACT
Spain is a country in which the welfare state is poor and weak, in terms of levels of benefits and social expenditures, in comparison with the other European Union countries. In both cases, it is clear that this emphasis on the existence of gender inequality and of social relations between the sexes disregards otter inequalities such as those based on social class or ethnic origin. In Spain, as in other European Union countries, the social outcasts are probably to be found among the usual marginal groups, including ethnic minority groups, drug abusers, former prison inmates, prostitutes. In the case of housewives, this situation probably carries same stigma. But far from meaning social exclusion, it makes them, the bond that ties the family together. They can even bear witness to their everyday domestic tasks, performed for the well-being of their family and home, as excellent illustrations of those socially useful jobs which, the unemployed and excluded welfare recipients refuse to do.
