Women during the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera
Women during the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera had few rights and were subjected to discriminatory gender norms.
8 March 1924 Royal Decree's Municipal Statue Article 51 gave women the right to vote for the first time, but was viewed as an attempt to shore up Primo de Rivera's electoral chances.
Economic requirements meant women were more visible in the workforce, and started encroaching on traditional male domains like the cafe and ateneo.
Feminine independence, principally organized in Madrid around the Lyceum Club, was condemned by members of the Catholic Church and viewed as scandalous in nature.
Article 84.3 said unmarried women could vote in municipal elections assuming they were the head of household, over the age of 23, not prostitutes and their status did not change.
Changes were made the following month that allowed women who met those some qualifications to run for political office.
Consequently, some women took advantage of this political opening, ran for office and won some seats in municipal governments as councilors and mayors where elections were held.
[5][6][7] This was a surprise move by Primo de Rivera in giving women the right to vote, and was largely viewed as a way of shoring up his electoral base ahead of scheduled elections in the following year.
[7][6] Manuel Cordero of El Socialista of wrote in June 1924 of a right wing governing supporting "the feminine vote supposes a revolutionary act and it seems strange that it is a reactionary which who has projected this reform in Spain.
"[7] María Cambrils was pleased with women being given the right to vote, but balked at the restrictions placed upon female voters.
[8] Some Catholics tried to capitalize on this for their own political interests, achieving success when local elections in some places saw 40% of their total votes come from women.
[6][9] The arguments made around the 1924 Royal Decree would later play a critical role in the debates around women's suffrage in the Second Republic.
[10] Middle-class women in urban areas, freed from earlier labor in the home, began to start to lobby for changes to improve their own lives.
[10][4] During the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera's had no real national congress until the creation of the Asamblea Nacional Consultiva in 1927.
"[14][15][6] The 1927–1929 session also began the process of drafting a new Spanish constitution that would have fully franchised women voters in Article 55.
These women included María de Maeztu, Micaela Díaz Rabaneda and Concepción Loring Heredia.
During the Congreso de los Diputados's inaugural session in 1927, the President of the Assembly specifically welcomed the new women, claiming their exclusion had been unjust.
[14][15] Loring Heredia would interrupt and demand an explanation from the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts on 23 November 1927, marking the first time a woman had done this on the floor of Congress.
Yet, despite this, they failed to offer any sort of comprehensive policy solution to this problem and were not willing to advocate strongly on the need to address women's education.
[22] Originally from Galicia, Maruja Mallo would go with Concha Mendez and other famous male painters of the day, searching for supplies that defined Spanish live in that period.
[24] In the lead up to the founding of the Second Republic and the Civil War, many middle class and upper-class women who became feminists did so as a result boarding school educations resulting in parents unable to guide the evolution of their political thoughts, fathers encouraging daughters towards political thinking, or being indoctrinated in classes essentially aimed at reinforcing societal gender norms.
