Asociación para la Enseñanza de la Mujer

It was founded by the progressive educator Fernando de Castro, professor at the University of Madrid, in 1870.

The period between the deposition of queen Isabella II of Spain in 1868 and the Restoration of 1875 was a time of intense debate over the reformation of society, which also included the issue of women's rights, which was to become the starting point of the Spanish women's movement.

In 1869, Fernando de Castro gave a series of lectures on education of women, in which he argued that education should be made available for women so that they too could fulfill their individual potential and help to bring forward the development of Spain in line with more developed Western nations.

Concepción Arenal, often referred to as the first women's rights activist in Spain, and Faustina Sáez de Melgar was engaged in the AEM from the start, having served in the advisory board of the Ateneo Artistico Literario y Senoras.

Though individual female students were accepted before, the universities of Spain did not formally open to women until 1910.