Feminists and the Spanish Civil War
Margarita Nelken, María Martínez Sierra and Carmen de Burgos were all important pre-Republic writers who influenced feminist thinking inside Spain.
Feminism in the Republican and Civil War eras was typically about "dual militancy" and was greatly influenced by anarchism and by an understanding of potential societal developments.
Dolores Ibárruri earned herself the nickname La Pasionaria as she traveled the country to speak in opposition to Francoist forces, making her one of the most visible and important feminist voices.
Sanctioned feminist writing in the post-war period stemmed largely from the works of aristocratic women such as María Lafitte, Countess of Campo Alanaga, and Lilí Álvarez.
The organization argued that women were being doubly punished by society, as they were expected to work outside the home to provide for the family while at the same time having to meet all the domestic needs of the household.
[3] The Institución Libre de Enseñanza (ILE) was founded by persecuted Spanish intellectuals, catering to freethinkers in educational facilities outside government control.
Not until the death of her husband in 1947 did María de la O Lejárraga claim authorship of these writings and admit to intentionally trying to use a masculine name in order to gain credibility.
Her wider body of feminist work also sat outside the feminism being developed by Anglo women in North America and Great Britain, but was well received inside Spain as her plays were performed in Madrid's theaters.
[18][19] Loring Heredia interrupted the proceedings and demanded an explanation from the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts on 23 November 1927, marking it the first time a woman had spoken from the Congress floor.
[17][23] Three women won seats in Spain's national congress, the Cortes, in the 1931 elections: Clara Campoamor Rodríguez, Victoria Kent Siano and Margarita Nelken y Mansbergen.
[7] The National Confederation of Labour (Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores or CNT) perpetuated gender inequality, paying its female employees less than men in comparable positions.
[7][13][30][22] Women were effectively locked out of the two largest anarchist organizations, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI).
[1] Existing tensions within the anarchist movement, resulting from the exclusion or discouragement of women by the male leadership, eventually led to the creation of Mujeres Libres by Lucia Sánchez Saornil, Mercedes Comaposada and Amparo Poch y Gascón in May 1936, shortly before the start of the Civil War.
Compared to their fellow Second Wave feminists in the United States, they were more radical in that they provided job training skills, health information sessions, and reading classes.
[22] Mujeres Libres also set up ateneos libertario [es] (storefront cultural centers), which acted at the local level and decentralized governance, making it accessible to all.
[31] Contacts took place in this period between POUM's Alfredo Martínez and leadership in Mujeres Libres in Madrid about the possibly of forming an alliance although they did not result in any action.
[8] As a result of PCE male governance trying to remove women from more active roles in the Communist movement, its name was changed to Pro-Working Class Children Committee around 1934 following the Asturian miners strike.
[10] Dolores Ibárruri, Carmen Loyola, Encarnación Fuyola, Irene Falcón, Elisa Uriz and María Martinez Sierra, part of a larger group representing Spain's communist, anarchist and socialist factions, attended the 1933 World Committee of Women against War and Fascism meeting in France.
PCE's male leadership strove to find roles for women that better suited their gender and were better fitted for the new, more conservative legal framework evolving under the Second Republic.
[8] This cross-party collaborative discussion was at times threatening to male leaders such as those in the Republican Union Party, who in 1934 put a stop to it by posting police officers at the entrances to keep non-party members out.
[10] Imagery from the conflict was subsequently used by both sides for propaganda to further their own agenda, particularly inside PSOE who saw the situation as a call for political unity on the left if they were to have any hope of countering what they viewed as the rise of fascism.
With the Republic largely maintaining control over its Navy, Franco and others in the military successfully convinced Adolf Hitler to provide transport for Spanish troops from North Africa to the Iberian peninsula.
[35][10] Franco's initial coalition included monarchists, conservative Republicans, Falange Española members, Carlist traditionalist, Roman Catholic clergy and the Spanish army.
Behind the scenes, away from the front, women serving in personal family and Republican opposition support roles were still expected to cook for soldiers, launder their uniforms, look after children and tend to dwellings.
One of their favorite topics was inequality on the front, and the hope that in addition to combat, they would also take on support roles like tending to the injured, cooking and cleaning while male colleagues were afforded time to rest.
Partido Comunista de España became the dominant clandestine political organization in Spain following the end of the Civil War and continued to be involved in feminist activities.
Women were involved with the party, helping to organize covert armed resistance by serving in leadership roles and assisting in linking up political leaders in exile with those active on the ground in Spain.
Works produced by these writers included Nada by Carmen Laforet in 1945 and La mujer nueva in 1955, Primera memoria by Ana María Matute in 1960.
Writings of some foreign feminists also found their way to Spain, including the Le deuxième sex published in French in 1947 by Simone de Beauvoir.
As they represented a return to traditional gender norms, they had less reason than Republican forces to discuss the importance of feminists and women's involvement on the losing side of the war.
