Women rights in Francoist Spain (1939–1975) and the democratic transition (1975–1985) were limited. The Franco regime immediately implemented draconian measures that legally incapacitated women, making them dependents of their husbands, fathers or the state. Moderate reforms would not begin until the 1960s, with more dramatic reforms taking place after Franco's death in 1975 and the ensuing democratic transition.

Freedom of association was a right denied to women. Franco banned all trade unions and political parties after coming to power in 1938. Women's groups and feminist organizations only began to emerge in the 1960s, with more freedom of association allowed in 1964.  Real change would not happen until 1978 when the law changed to allow feminist associations to lawfully exist. Unions were allowed to be lawfully created one year earlier, in 1977. Censorship existed during the Franco regime, and impacted both the depiction of women in the media and what women writers could produce. There were ways around it, but censorship still negatively impacted much of the work of earlier Spanish women and feminists. Women's employment opportunities in the Francoist period were severely limited.  Women needed the permission of male guardians to work, and there were many jobs they were legally barred from. Legal reforms around this system only started to take place in the 1960s as a result of economic needs.

Women and feminists watched with great interest the process of creating a new Spanish constitution. Despite being a heavily repressed group during the regime, they were completely excluded from the process. Decisions around women's rights were ignored, used for political capital or pushed down the road to be dealt with later. Only in the final part of the process was one woman involved. She was UCD's María Teresa Revilla. In 1981, Soledad Becerril became a minister in the Spanish government. She was the first woman minister in Spain since the Second Spanish Republic.

History The pillars for a New Spain in the Franco era became national syndicalism and national Catholicism. The Franco period saw an extreme regression in the rights of women. The situation for women was more regressive than that of women in Nazi Germany under Hitler. Women did not have rights in Francoist Spain.  Women had civil obligations, where not being a responsible was a considered a crime. Many of the laws imposed by the regime had roots in nineteenth century Spanish laws, and treated women as if their sex was a disability. The legal status for women in many cases reverted to that stipulated in the Napoleonic Code that had first been installed in Spanish law in 1889. The post Civil War period saw the return of laws that effectively made wards of women.  They were dependent on husbands, fathers and brothers to work outside the house. Women needed permission to do an array of basic activities, including applying for a job, opening a bank account or going on a trip. The law during the Franco period allowed husbands to kill their wives if they caught them in the act of adultery. All legislation passed in Spain between 1936 and 1941 that was not decreed by Franco was repealed in 1941.

Pilar Primo de Rivera was viewed by many inside the regime as a critical player in successfully encouraging Franco to relax restrictions for women during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1969 at the Federación Internacional de Mujeres de Carreras Jurídicas conference, María Telo Núñez in Madrid presented a paper on the rights of women under Spain's civil code.  This presentation would inspire the creation in 1971 of the Asociación Española de Mujeres Juristas. The groups's goal was to reform family law, which was done with the changes on 2 May 1975.Nielfa Cristóbal, Gloria. Movimientos femeninos, en Enciclopedia Madrid S.XX

The intention to organize the International Year of Women was announced by the United Nations in 1972. Sección Feminina then launched a political campaign to be the point organization for United Nation plans around women. Absent any other organization capable of doing this, the government agreed and published their decision in Decreto 950/1974. The regime followed this with statements about plans to reform or eliminate laws that incapacitated women.

In dealing with the evolving problems of women, President of Government Arias Navarro said in 1974 ahead of the International Year of the Woman, that Spain needed a "genuine and profitable Spanish feminism", a feminism that had Spanish origins and was free of foreign influence.  It should not come from "communities of traditions well differentiated to ours or that are in a very different state of development." Navarro was likely indicating support for Sección Femenina, and not for other qualified Spanish feminists of the period like Mercedes Formica and Maria Angeles Durán. Ahead of the Year of the Woman, the government created eight commissions to investigate the status of Spanish women.  They were, "The International Year of Women in the United Nations and in organizations international "; "Analysis of the situation of the maladjusted and marginalized woman"; "Women and social welfare"; "Women and work"; "Women in education and in culture "; "Women in socio-economic development"; "The woman and the family"; and" Women in the civic-social and political community". The government used reports from these commissions to produce two reports that were published in 1975. They were La situación de la mujer en España and Memoria del Año Internacional de la Mujer. Lawyer María Telo played an important role in the legal easing of restrictions for women in May 1975. The regime allowed the lifting of restrictions as part of its attempts to change its international image in light of the 1975 UN International Year of Women.

While moderate reforms had taken place up before Franco's death, at the time of his death women still lacked a number of rights.  This included the ability to get a job without permission of a woman's father or husband, to open her own bank account, to own property in her own name without permission from her father or husband, get a passport without permission or to travel without permission.

In the immediate post-Franco era, feminists were successful in decriminalizing adultery, divorce, abortion before three months, and some forms of birth control. The treatment of women's rights in the democratic transition put Spain in line with other European governments of the period. European influence was a positive one in Spain in this period in terms of making sure the discussion about women's rights took place.

Association The Franco regime banned all political parties and trade unions by 1938.  The only permissible type organization was Falange, founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera in 1933. This ban included both UGT and PSOE.

The 1959 Law of Public Order was created to prevent people from protesting by punishing organizers financially for organizing them.  Fines could be given up to 500,000 pesetas for holding unauthorized protests. The law had a chilling effect on those seeking to express opposition to the regime. As a result of this law, the Court of Public Order (TOP) would be created in December 1963 with the intention of punishing any person or association that disturbed public order.  This included work stoppages and strikes, and any attempts to block public roads, or anyone disobeying public officials telling crowds to disperse. Sanctions could be levied by mayors, civil governors, the Minister of the Interior and the  Council of Ministers.  Fines could be increased by 50% if alleged participants had a police or criminal record. Trade unions were officially not allowed in Francoist Spain with the nominal exception of the Falange led union organization Organización Sindical Española (OSE).  Women tended not to be involved with them. When they did though, Falangist women would often find themselves working alongside socialist and communist women and would serve as a focused source of opposition to the regime.Barreda, Mikel (2006). La Democracia española: realidades y desafíos. Análisis del sistema político español. Barcelona: UOC.

Starting in the 1960s, women's groups and feminists organizations began to emerge. These included university groups, women's jurist associations and clandestine women's political affiliate organizations. Women's associations were tolerated by the regime but were not completely legal.  This changed when in 1964, women's associations were legally allowed.  Feminists associations were legally allowed starting in 1978, a year after PCE began a legal political party. In 1974 and 1975, there were no full women's associations as the government required they have more than 19 members, and the Catholic Church was still involved in trying to discourage the official recognition of such associations. The Democratic Movement of Women in Catalonia first met in 1963.  They held their First General Meeting of the Democratic Movement in 1965, bringing together women from around Spanish to constitute the  Women's Democratic Movement.  While the Catalan organization disappeared in 1969, it continued on mostly in Madrid, Galicia and Valencia. Partido Feminista would not become legal until 1981. They had been legally constituted in 1979, but had lacked legal government recognition as a political party until two years later.

Franco's death in 1975 allowed women to emerge publicly, no longer needing to remain clandestine. It led to the mass organization of feminist organizations.

The political reform undertaken by the president of the government Adolfo Suárez included the approval of the freedom of union association: this in practice supposed the death of the Francoist Trade Unions. Paradoxically, Adolfo Suárez had been Minister-Secretary General of the Movement until his new appointment. On 8 October 1976, the Suárez government approved the creation of the Institutional Administration of Socioprofessional Services (ISSA), an autonomous body dependent on the government's presidency in which the union structure was integrated.Gil García, Pilar (2005). Las hermandades sindicales de labradores y ganaderos (1944-1977). Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. ISSA took over the ownership and management of OSE's s real estate assets and all its archives. On 1 April 1977, the right of association was finally recognized, and a Royal Decree of June 2 of that same year extinguished the mandatory union membership.Chamocho, M. A.; Ramos, Isabel (2013). Introducción jurídica a la historia de las relaciones de trabajo. Dykinson.

Censorship

Censorship became a new reality for many women writers in Francoist Spain. Publishers were subject to government control.  The Catholic Church was highly influential in what was allowed to be published. Depictions of women were censored by the media in Francoist Spain. Suicide, abortion, nudity, drug use, and alcohol and alcoholism were often considered taboo subjects that would warrant censorship by the regime. Starting in 1962, censorship across Spain began to officially relax.  Further changes to relax censorship occurred four years later in 1966.

One of the ways to journalists would get around censorship was to avoid direct criticism of Franco and the military. Scholars such as Michael Ugarte suggest that censorship may have been advantageous to some writers, as it required the "sharpening of the writer's traditional tools: irony, allusion, ambiguity, association, multiple signification and other devices that enhance the sophistication of the writing and the reader's reception of it."