Women in the Spanish democratic transition period
During Spanish elections in the transition period, women favored centrist political parties and disavowed more the extremist elements like ETA, Herri Batasuna (HB), Catalan nationalists ERC, and Galician radicals.
While female only labor associations had existed underground in the Francoist period, these organizations and the specific needs of women they espoused were largely ignored by HOAC, JEC, Comisiones Obreras and UGT.
[7][8][9] 1000 reproductive aged women In the immediate post-Franco era, feminists in Spain were united in their goal to eliminate the law that made adultery a criminal offense.
[28] Women in PSOE and UGT in 1976 After Franco's death, María Begoña Abdelkader García was part of a group that created PSC-PSOE AS in Hospitalet (Barcelona).
[31] At the December 1976 XXVII PSOE Congress in Madrid, Carmen García Bloise was elected secretary of Administration of the Executive Commission.
"[34] In 1977, Juan Luis Cebrián was charged with disclosing information about contraceptive use in an article he wrote in the newspaper Sunday Times as part of a series by British doctors.
The decision by Adolfo Suarez to legalize the party was sped up as a result of PCE's actions following the 24 January 1977 murders of seven labor lawyers in Atocha.
[39] Ahead of the 1977 elections, UCD did not put forth a coherent party policy on major social issues of the day in order to try to broaden their appeal among Spanish voters, who had largely been apolitical as a result of regime constraints on political activity.
[27] The Cortes of 1977 had to try to find a way to navigate the demands of the newly liberated left, who wanted to see reforms like the legalization of abortion and divorce, with the Catholic Church who opposed both.
[27] The transition period saw Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD) come into power led in 1977 by Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez on a liberal platform espousing women's rights.
[36] One of the reasons UCD went into decline after the 1977 elections was the party was forced to take positions on major issues of the day, including divorce, abortion and the use of public money for private schools.
It consecrated the freedom of women in their sexual relations and produced an authentic social transformation changing the traditional concept of marriage and, therefore, of the family.
Communist María Dolores Calvet pointed out during the debate that contraception legalization was one of the issues agreed upon as part of the Moncloa Pacts.
PSOE rallied the left, managing to prevent by a single vote, the ability for the government to make decrees that would limit contraceptive advertising.
Catalan Communist José Solé Barberá compared the government's lack of willingness to fully decriminalize contraceptives as akin to the policies of Hitler, Stalin and Franco.
[34] Despite the legalization of contraception in 1978, voluntary sterilization remained a crime in Spain, with doctors punishable by prison time for performing such procedures.
Reforms in the post-Francoist period saw the Catholic Church lose official status in government, the age of legal majority moved from 21 to 18, and marriage defining men and women equally.
Article 9.2 states, "It is the responsibility of public powers to promote conditions ensuring that the freedom and equality of individuals and of the groups to which they belong are real and effective.
The woman really began to be able to be what she herself achieved with her effort (...) I believe that none of the deputies of that constituent legislature were satisfied with the regulation of the Crown in regard to the order of succession.
"[48] The Cortes of 1977 had to try to find a way to navigate the demands of the newly liberated left, who wanted to see reforms like the legalization of abortion and divorce, with the Catholic Church who opposed both.
[27] One of the reasons UCD went into decline after the 1977 elections was the party was forced to take positions on major issues of the day, including divorce, abortion and the use of public money for private schools.
A compromise was reached on divorce that would see the issue addressed in later legislation through the text of Article 32.2 which said, "the law will regulate the forms of matrimony... [and] the causes of separation and dissolution."
These women were opposed to Article 15, which said that "everyone has the right to life" (Spanish: todos tienen derecho a la vida) as they felt it could be interpreted as offering protection to fetuses.
The law would not change until 1985, when medically induced abortions were allowed if a mother's life was at risk, if the pregnancy was a result rape, or if the fetus had a deformity.
The new Pope John Paul II appointed a new conservative Nuncio in Madrid who would speak much more openly about his political oppositions to government reforms on the issue.
[61] Ana María Pérez del Campo, the president of a feminist organization, said of the Francisco Fernández Ordoñez's actions, "The Church offered fierce resistance.
Women voters in general favored centrist parties during the 1982 elections, like PNV, CiU and Centro Democrático y Social (CDS).
Women disavowed more the extremist elements like ETA, Herri Batasuna (HB), Catalan nationalists ERC, and Galician radicals.
Despite this, women affiliated with PSOE continued to deal with issues of dual militancy, where they battled both for their political goals and feminist ideology that sometimes could be at odds with each other.
This was likely a result of an increased number of illegal abortions taking place in Spain in newly opened women's health clinics.
