Feminism in Francoist Spain and the democratic transition period took place in a specific socio-historical context. Spanish feminism went through several waves in the Francoist period. Broadly speaking, they are first-wave feminism taking place from the mid-nineteenth century to 1965, second-wave feminism taking place from 1965 to 1975, and third-wave feminism taking place from 1975 to 2012. First wave Spanish feminism involved feminists trying to improve the lives of women at a time when patriarchy continued to be entrenched in Spanish society, this despite the revolutionary nature of the Second Spanish Republic when it came to the rights of women. Most first wave feminists had gone into exile or disappeared, or were imprisoned or condemned to death following the end of the Civil War. The feminists who remained tended to be guerrilla fighters. They coordinated their feminist activities with political parties and unions. Other feminists in this wave tended to use riots over economic conditions instead of industrial action to try effect change. The regime tried to repressive these riots as they felt they were incredibly subversive, challenging their definition of Spanish womanhood that confined women to the home. At the same time, the regime also created their own brand of state sanction anti-feminism. This was largely supported through the works of Sección Feminina.
Second-wave feminism emerged in the mid-1960s in response to other changes going on in Spanish society. Women began to create open women's groups and clandestine feminist organizations. They were influenced by feminists texts like Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, which had begun to be circulated more underground. 1975 UN International Women's Year would be a pivotal year for Spanish feminists, both inside and outside the regime's structure as it finally allowed the movement to emerge from the darkness and gain international connections. This would be followed up by the work of Movimiento Democrático de Mujeres who, along with Asociación Española de Mujeres Universitarias (AEMU), Asociación Española de Mujeres Separadas (AEMS), and housewife and Catholic women's associations (HOAC, JOC, MAS) would start Primeras Jornadas. This movement would develop a unified and democratic feminist definition and list of goals during the last days of Francoism and the first of the democratic transition.
Third-wave feminism emerged in Spain during the democratic transition period. It took on several broad forms including "feminismo reformista", which advocated for legal and social changes for women without challenging Spain's traditional gender roles. Another form was "feminismo socialista", also known as "feminismo ácrata", "radical" or "sexista". This form of feminism was tied around the specific class struggle of women, and believed that women must be involved in the political process in order to affect change. An example of this was the Partido Feminista. A third form of feminism was "feminismo de la igualdad" or "feminismo de la diferencia". Feminists attempted to be engaged in the democratic transition process, including the Spanish constitution of 1978, and the 1977, 1979 and 1982 general elections. They advocated for a number of causes including making contraception and abortion legal, ending adultery as a criminal offense, and legalizing divorce.
Background Feminism as a global movement begins in France following the end of the French Revolution, when in 1791 Olimpia de Gouges wrote a declaration of the rights of women and the citizen. The Frenchwoman went to the guillotine for her ideas. Her efforts marked the start of first-wave feminism. Her ideas were picked up by English speaking Mary Wollstonecraft. A New York textile factory caught on fire on 8 March 1908, with the owner trapping his female workers inside. He had been forcing them to work 10-hour days, making fabric of mauve and lilac color. 129 workers died in the fire. The colors of the fabric they were working on were chosen as the symbol of the international women's rights movement. Two years later, at the Second International Conference of Socialist women, German revolutionary Clara Zetkin proposed that 8 March be honored as a day in memory of working women. The day has been celebrated as International Women's Day or International Working Women's Day ever since. For women at that meeting, the day was about demanding the right to work without discrimination. The day would not be celebrated widely in Spain until 1975.
Spanish feminism first developed in the late 1800s. French, Italian, Germany and American feminism all developed differently from Spain because those countries existed under more democratically ideal governments, both during the Second Republic and during the Francoist period.
Spanish definitions of feminism and the study of the differences between men and women differ from English speaking definitions, in that Spain utilizes a sex based biological difference as the foundation of, whereas English speakers use a gender based approach focusing on different masculine and feminine traits, borrowing from the ideas of Simone de Beauvoir who said that women are not born but made by their experiences. In a Spanish context, gender is often used only to avoid using the word feminism.
Much of the study of feminism uses Anglo-Saxon models of discourse. According to Italian academics like Rosi Braidotti, Gianna Pomata and Paola di Cor, this model can be problematic in the context of Mediterranean feminism as it ignores specific cultural baggage for women from the region. To compensate for this, Pomata suggests further elaboration of socio-historical context be given to properly situate this feminism in a broader global context.Pomata, Gianna: "Histoire des femmes, histoire du genre". In Perrot, Michelle, et DUBY, Georges, eds.: Femmes e histoire . Colloque organisé par G. DUBY, M. PERROT, et les directrices de l'histoire des femmes en Occident. Paris, Plon, nov. 1992, pp. 25-37. These models are also particularly problematic in a Spanish context as they fail to address the very nature of Francoism that sought to purge all female identity from society through forced assimilation legitimized by fear and violence. In this context, Spanish feminism acknowledges three distinct groups of women: Women who accepted the regime imposed patriarchal model; Women who found degrees of independence within the regime through participation in groups like Sección Femenina, Acción Católica and "chicas topolino"; and Women who felt repressed by the regime and participated in political resistance against the regime.
Waves are used as a metaphor to explain different movements in feminism, while suggesting a fluidity between them with different generations of feminists riding between them. Each wave is defined individuals generational experiences and involvement with feminist, and the evolution of their ideas and the resources they have to support their feminist goals. These can all change as individuals age, furthering the wave metaphor. First-wave feminism was about the rights of citizenship for women, and getting the right to vote. Second-wave feminism was in response to women entering the labor market and higher education in large numbers, and having the ability to decide their own trajectory within these domains. Third-wave was about having full legal equality under the law, including the right to control their bodies in the same way men could. All waves are unified by their subversion of gender roles and their challenge to hierarchical patriarchal spaces. A common feature of all the different waves of Spanish feminism is they were based on a realization that the reality of biological sex differences should not lead to social marginalization and exclusion from certain parts of life. Spanish feminism continually challenged in this period the hierarchy of differences between men and women. Feminism in Spain is defined around seeking equality for women.
History Spanish feminism went through several waves in the Francoist period. Broadly speaking, they are first-wave feminism taking place from the mid-nineteenth century to 1965, second-wave feminism taking place from 1965 to 1975, and third-wave feminism taking place from 1975 to 2012.Nielfa Cristóbal, Gloria. Movimientos femeninos, en Enciclopedia Madrid S.XX
First-wave feminism in the Franco period (1939 - 1965)
First-wave Spanish feminism was about women assisting other women in improving their lives. Despite the revolutionary nature of the Second Spanish Republic and the Spanish Civil War as it related to the rights of women, neither resulted in a fundamental change in Spanish society's attitudes towards women. Patriarchy continued to play a huge role in the lives of Spanish women across both periods, and then into the Franco era. Following the end of the Spanish Civil War, many of Spain's leading feminists were forced into exile. Feminists in the Francoist period were largely divided by age and side of the Civil War they were affiliated with. The two primary age groups were those women born between 1910 and 1930, and those women born between 1930 and 1950. For Republican women born between 1910 and 1930, they often found themselves forced to submit in ways they had not had to previously and many of these feminists faced active persecution. Feminism and socialism continued to have a fraught relationship during the early Francoist period.
One of the issues for feminists in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s was they never were able to successfully challenge the regime's definition of womanhood as motherhood. Those who did were not viewed as representative of the movements they came from. This included feminists in the pre-Civil War period like Hildegart Rodriguez and Lucia Sánchez Saornil. More common was for feminists to embrace the concept of motherhood, with Federica Montseny among this type of feminist.
Anarchist feminists ideas about abortion in the early Francoist period were informed by opinions exemplified by Director of General Health and Social Assistance of the Generalitat of Catalonia Félix Martí Ibáñez during the Civil War, with a policy called "Eugenics Reform" that included support of abortion by removing it as a clandestine practice. Their policies also included support of working-class women, by attempting to provide them with economic relief so elective abortions were not needed. During the Civil War, the only women's anti-fascist group to support the legalization of abortion was POUM. Mujeres Libres never mentioned abortion nor contraception. Support of policies in favor of legalization consequently largely were made by leftist men. Women did not see abortion as part of a policy of women's liberation.
During the early Francoist period, mainstream feminists largely allowed the regime to dominate the narrative on birth control and sex education. They did not challenge the Francoist government through their few state sanctioned organizations like Sección Femenina on the legalization of contraception.