Women on the Nationalist side of the Spanish Civil War
The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera saw women enlisted on electoral rolls for the first time, as well as being allowed to run for municipal political office and appointed to the national congress by 1927.
Many on the left opposed this, believing women would support right-wing candidates as they remained under the influence of the Catholic Church and their husbands.
Limited amounts of feminist beliefs were sanctioned by Francoist Spain, with much of the independently published material coming from aristocratic women.
Married women needed the approval or involvement of their husbands to handle matters such as changing their address, accepting an inheritance, or owning property or a business.
[4] The year 1919 marked the first time that attempts were made to mobilize conservative women in Spain, with the Acción Católica de la Mujer (ACM).
Consequently, some women took advantage of this political opening, ran for office and won some seats in municipal governments as councilors and mayors.
[9] Women would gain access to national representation during the 1927 - 1929 legislative period as a result of the Royal Decree Law of 12 September 1927, Article 15.
During the Congreso de los Diputados's inaugural session in 1927, the President of the Assembly specifically welcomed the new women, claiming the exclusion of them had been unjust.
[9][10] 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.
[1][2][7][9] Campoamor, a centrist viewed by some of her colleagues as right leaning, had created the Female Republican Union during the early part of the Second Republic.
Campoamor and Kent had both been waged highly public battles during the writing of the constitution of the Second Republic over the rights of women, and over the issue of universal suffrage.
[13] Kent, in contrast, received much more support from Spain's right, including Catholics and traditionalists, during this period of constitutional debate as she, alongside Nelken, opposed women's suffrage.
Rather than having the ACM try to accomplish political goals, they sought to direct participants to be more engaged in charity work and supporting working-class families.
[14] Campoamor found herself locked out of the political process for the 1936 elections, as she had criticized her Radical Party for not supporting women's issues and removed herself from their list.
Serving as President of Organización Pro-Infancia Obrera, she tried to find another political party that would allow her on their list while also advocating for women's rights.
[14] During the elections, pamphlets were distributed in Seville that warned women that a leftist Republican victory would result in the government removing their children from their homes and the destruction of their families.
[5] To this end, conservative leaders successfully oversaw the merger of ACM with the Unión de Damada del Sagrado Corazón in 1934.
Sensing the political tides, these women started leaving ACM by 1932 and joined Juventud Católica Femenina in large numbers.
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.
[1][17][21] Franco's initial coalition included monarchists, conservative Republicans, Falange Española members, Carlist traditionalist, Roman Catholic clergy and the Spanish army.
[22][21] The Spanish Civil War started in July 1936, and women across became involved in support roles like nurses or running charitable organizations, or serving nationalist interests by tending to their families behind the front.
[23] Many poor, illiterate and unemployed women often found themselves immersed in the ideological battle of the Civil War and its connected violence as a result of forces beyond her control.
[25] In the Republican offensive against Nationalist held Teruel from December 1937 to February 1938, brigades on the ground tried to honor Indalecio Prieto's call to protect civilians, and particularly women and children.
As a consequence, some Republican troops were hesitant when confronting women under apparent siege on the front as they did not always trust claims of needs for assistance.
Staffed by women wearing blue uniforms with white aprons, they worked in taking care of children and other displaced people, and in distributing aid.
[18][8] Pilar Jaraiz Franco, the niece of Francisco Frano, sympathized with her uncle's politics and, during the Civil War, spent some time in a Republican prison.
These included Helen Nicholson, the Baroness de Zglinitzki, Aileen O'Brien, Jane Anderson, Pip Scott-Ellis, and Florence Farmborough.
Opportunities to work, study or travel required taking classes on cooking, sewing, childcare and the role of women before they were granted.
[12] The pride that women got in completing these domestic tasks associated with Sección Femenina's teachings has been described by Guiliana Di Febo as Christian feminism.
[2] Women needed permission to do an array of basic activities, including applying for a job, opening a bank account or going on a trip.
