on public infrastructure and worked to improve roads, railways, irrigation networks, and more. The dictatorship paid for these improvements by taking on large amounts of debt, and this led to a temporary increase in economic growth. Originally, the dictatorship was going to fund these improvements by implementing a progressive tax system, where Spain's wealthiest people would pay more in tax. This plan was dropped after much resistance from the upper classes. In 1929, Spain experienced an economic downturn that coincided with the start of the Great Depression, and Spaniards lost confidence in Primo de Rivera's dictatorship. The dictatorship also struggled to maintain the exchange rate of Spain's currency, the peseta, and no economic policy it tried stopped the peseta from falling in value. Social change In 1924, the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera gave unmarried women the right to vote in local elections if they were older than 23 and not subject to any parental authority. Women were also allowed to run for office in town councils, and fourteen women were invited to be on the National Assembly in 1927. However, Primo de Rivera made his view on the role of women clear, saying: "Women can do as much good as men, and undertake and accomplish all the tasks performed by men. But there is one that is essential in women: housekeeping, and that is what really underscores their importance." The dictatorship encouraged large families, and in 1926 it started subsidising families with more than eight children. The dictatorship also protected the rights of individual workers with its 1926 labour code. It introduced maternity benefits and allowed nursing mothers a paid hour each day to feed their babies. In November 1926, the dictatorship created the National Corporative Association, where committees representing trade and industry would meet with an equal proportion of employers and employee representatives. They discussed legislation and aimed to solve labour conflicts between the groups. Women's participation in the workforce as skilled workers also increased rapidly from 1925 to 1930, as did the percentage of women in apprenticeship programs, which rose from 32.6% to 36.4% throughout the late 1920s. James Rial notes that these changes in women's status occurred without any political undertakings from the dictatorship. The dictatorship's collapse (1930) The economic struggles of 1929 and the dictatorship's failure to stabilise the value of the peseta were large hits to its reputation. According to Carr, "it was not,