5. Why did the Franco regime seek to reverse gains made by Spanish women in the early twentieth century?

Indisputably, General F. Franco’s dictatorship in a “Nationalist Spain” truncated both social and political progress made by women throughout the period of the early 1900s. In order to discuss the crucial motives for the totalitarian regime’s reversal of such developments, a brief historical background of European stances on the roles of women must firstly be examined. As established by H. Graham, attempts at preserving socio-cultural conservatism to uphold political ideologies during this era were geared primarily towards the reiteration of traditional gender roles in society. The influence of existent policies in a Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany at this time were, undoubtedly, of great influence on Franco’s regime. Earlier legislation enforcing this conservative perspective in Spain confirms such views, in that under these laws women could only conduct certain economic affairs, make purchases and sign contracts under supervision of a dominant husband - “el permiso marital” being required. This concept of subordination to men permeated Spanish society, restricting women to lives of exclusive domesticity. As ‘queen of the home’, the majority of middle and lower class women were uneducated illiterates, generally ignorant and uninvolved in political affairs and indoctrinated by traditions of Catholicism supremacy. However, several feminist organisations formed in the early twentieth century under the Primo de Rivera rule, along with ensuing reforms under the

Second Spanish Republic such as the granting of woman’s suffrage, shifts towards secularization and the implementation of the 1932 Divorce Law, reflected changing times and promoted a modernised society, inclusive of a free-thinking “new” woman. Despite the gradual evolution of the female being made during this period, the triumph of the Nationalists over “the Reds” after Spain’s 1936 Civil War substantially halted and even caused a retreat of such gains with Franco’s pursuant dictatorship. His fascist beliefs reinforced the notion of emphasis on women’s subservience with the reintroduction of several discriminative legislations. In this respect, he sought to preserve women as being the ‘social glue’ of the state and restore Spain’s post-war damaged demography. Franco’s recommitment to the Church facilitated this comfortably, with religious indoctrination further suppressing advances in women’s education. From a political perspective, Franco’s right-wing interests were also protected by the Church in its promotion of female conservatism. As an anti-Republican government with fierce opposition to strides of communism, it was therefore crucial that the Franco regime eradicated the modernised republican-born version of a woman in defence of its radical authoritarianism.

THE IDEOLOGY OF PATRIARCHY Thus, a crucial reason for the brutal regime’s condemnation of women is derived from deeply misogynistic views held during the 1900s. Women were regarded as being ‘home angels’, who ought to remain confined to the domestic sphere of society. It was widely held that their natural duty was to provide service to the nation by means of conducting home-making affairs and raising children, instilling appropriate morals as necessary. This generalized perception of gender roles, in which female politics, external careers or military affiliation were suppressed, is propounded by legislations enforced under A. Hitler and B. Mussolini at the time, and reiterated by R. Rubio-Marin and P.B. Radcliff in their respective literatures. Therefore, significant advances made during the Republican period with regards to equality in amendments of these laws were completely obliterated during Franco’s reign. Up until the 1970s, women were subjected to imprisonment under the law “abandono del hogar”, and could not own individual property or sign contracts without a husband’s permission. Implemented birth-promoting policies, incentives in the form of large family subsidies and the prohibition of entitlement to specific careers sought to detain women and recover Spain’s demography, which had suffered a great blow during the war and subsequent years.

Actresses knitting and crocheting for the militia [© Museu de l’Historia de la Ciutat, Barcelona
Actresses knitting and crocheting for the militia [© Museu de l’Historia de la Ciutat, Barcelona
Franco’s reintroduction of a discriminatory framework, including abortion penalization, provisions regarding passionate crimes, cohabitation and adultery, along with reforms of the 1994 Penal Code, also served to effectively bring an evolution of feminist advances to a stand-still. One of the finest ways in which this ideology is visually exemplified was Franco’s substitution of the war-time image of militiawomen for the portrayal of a classic feminine role - voluntary and social service work in the form of tending to combatants, nursing and sewing.
THE CHURCH AND EDUCATION Furthermore, there was need for the advances of women’s with regards to greater education to be prevented in order to preserve this existent social role, obliging them to remain loyal to Catholic traditions and thereby deter political awareness. With the revived and immense support of the Church, preserving this concept via religious indoctrination proved easy for the regime. Female activist M. Fórmica verifies the Church’s traditional views of women in her autobiography, where she recounts the tale of a nun’s advice of dissuasion on the education of women in the early twentieth century. Paradoxically, it was this these ties to the Church that discouraged female Parliamentarians V. Kent and M. Nelken

from vouching for suffrage of their own kind in the 1930s. As confirmed by “miliciana” R. Sanchez, females were more likely to be indirectly educated by the Church, due to the institution’s influence on faithful mothers. Moreover, as was later made evident in autobiographies of several prominent females, free-thinking of the 1930s was sparking political consciousness, making females more aware of social injustices and inculcating tendencies towards communist ideologies. Of particular significance here is S. Real’s retellings of familial conflict, in which her mother sought to impose religious mannerisms, whereas her father served to politicise her. Thus, the “Nacionalcatolicismo” ideology embraced by the Franco regime sought to continue a cycle wherein women would remain as uneducated mouthpieces to their confessors. Accompanied by the main female organisation at the time, “La Sección Feminista”, headed by Falangist P. Primo de Rivera, there were also great restrictions on female education in this respect, with the organisation promoting the concept that “the only mission that the mother country assigns to women is home care”.

ANTI-COMMUNISM & ANTI-REPUBLICANISM Moreover, Franco’s identification as an extreme anti-communist serves massively as a driving factor in favour of the retardation of women’s progress. The outbreak of the civil war led to a banding of anarchist female warriors - the “milicianas”, who aided in thwarting the coup’s attempts at overthrowing the Republic. Historically, such a contrast to the woman’s conventional role is regarded as “a historical monopoly of men”. In order to effectively conquer the feared invasion of communism, Franco took several measures against women who were both outright supporters, or who appeared to be anarchically affiliated. Most notably in this regards was perhaps the exile of renowned female communist D. Ibárruri, commonly known as “La Pasionaria”, who often protested against the Franco dictatorship. Other prominent activist women, including M. de la Torre, M. Lejárraga and F. Montseny, were forced to flee the tyrannical country in exile. Further to this point, after allegedly reading a socialist newspaper, P. Espinosa was subsequently murdered. Women married to Republicans were also killed, including A. Barayón, and rape was actively used as a weapon against such political women as Franco enforced the idea that “Republican women were corrupt and depraved and thus not worthy of respect”. Furthermore, radio

broadcasts conducted by Franco’s officers frequently spoke to the humiliation and assault of these left-wing women by Franco’s forces. The regime’s “purification” measures therefore sought to identify “the enemy” by demarcation of fascist supporters and the defeated Republicans, regarded as a defeated “anti-Spain”. This cultural war initiated by Franco’s military coup on the society of Spain purged citizens of all Republican-associated changes and because the female intellectual was a republican creation, amongst the victimised were these “new” women, quelled by the radically right-wing regime. Thus, in conclusion, it is made evident that despite strides made in equality reforms during the Republic period, the Franco regime’s chauvinistic outlook stifled such advances in order to keep these existent social gender stereotyping intact. This sought to preserve the notion of patriarchy and re-establish a stabilised demographic structure in Spain, via the reduction of a woman’s role to that of procreation. With the Church’s assistance, the regime also hindered educational advances to truncate the development of opposing political perspectives and to effectively abolish the Republican enemy and its ideologies, thereby upholding the fascist supremacy. Ultimately therefore, all of these tactics of delaying female progress were undertaken in order to assist in the preservation of an extensive dictatorship under the rule of F. Franco, measures which would prove to be effective and existent for an impressive span of forty years and beyond.

BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS * Cowans, J., Modern Spain: A Documentary History, (Pennsylvania, 2003) * De Grazia, V., How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922-1945, (California, 1992) * Graham, H., The War and its Shadow: Spain’s Civil War in Europe’s Long Twentieth Century, (Sussex, 2012) * Kirschenbaum, L.A., International Communism and the Spanish Civil War: Solidarity and Suspicion, (USA, 2015) * Lorée Enders, V.; Radcliff, P.B., Constructing Spanish Womanhood: Female Identity in Modern Spain (New York, 1999) * Mangini, S., Memories of Resistance: Women’s Voices from the Spanish Civil War, (Michigan, 1995) * Morcillo, A., Memory and Cultural History of the Spanish Civil War: Realms of Oblivion, (Boston, 2013) * Preston, P., ‘Doves of War: Four Women of Spain’, (London, 2002) * Preston, P., The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth Century Spain, (London, 2012) * Ribeiro de Meneses, F., Franco and the Spanish Civil War, (London, 2001)

JOURNALS & ARTICLES * F. Lannon, ‘The Catholic Historical Review’, True Catholic Womanhood: Gender Ideology in Franco's Spain by A. G. Morcillo, 89.2 (2003) * H. Graham; R. Cleminson, ‘Women and Social Change’, Sexual Politics * I. Ria Del Carmen Muriedas, ‘Spanish Women’s History in the 20th century’, The Evolution of European Women through the Centuries, Comenius Project, (2006-2007) * Josetxu, ‘Control de la natalidad’, El mujer en el franquismo, (2004)
NEWSPAPERS
* G. Tremlett, ‘The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston – review’, The Guardian, 9 March 2012
WEBSITES
* ‘Franco’s Spain’, http://www.casahistoria.net/franco.htm#3Women, accessed 18/11/2015. * ‘The Opinions of Spanish Women Concerning the Dictatorship of Francisco Franco’, http://eaglefeather.honors.unt.edu/2005/article/199#.VmUToPmLTIV, accessed 20/11/2015. * ‘Franco: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, https://spanishspeakingworld-12b.wikispaces.com/Franco%3B+The+Good,+the+Bad+and+the+Ugly, accessed 02/12/2015. * ‘The Crimes of Franco’s Fascist Regime 2: Women in Prison’, http://reelnews.co.uk/the-crimes-of-francos-fascist-regime-2-women-in-prison/, accessed 03/12/2015. * ‘Treatment of Women in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany’, https://bobhistory.wikispaces.com/Treatment+of+Women+in+Fascist+Italy+and+Nazi+Germany, accessed 04/12/2015.

* ‘History of Spain – The Franco Years 1939 – 1975’, http://www.spanish-web.com/history/franco.php, accessed 04/12/2015. * ‘Franco and the Catholic Church’, http://www.spainthenandnow.com/spanish-history/franco-and-the-catholic-church/default180.aspx, accessed 06/12/2015. * ‘Second World War > Political Figures > Francisco Franco’, http://spartacus-educational.com/2WWfranco.htm, accessed 07/12/2015. * ‘Spain – The Changing Attitudes in Spain’, http://family.jrank.org/pages/1622/Spain-Changing-Attitudes-in-Spain.html, accessed 07/12/2015.

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[ 1 ]. H. Graham; R. Cleminson, ‘Women and Social Change’, Sexual Politics, p. 100.
[ 2 ]. 1919 Sacchi Law art. 7 excluded women from “those positions that involve the exercise of public judicial authority, political rights or power, or the military defence of the state.”
[ 3 ]. 1938 Cross of Honour of the German Mother (Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter) introduced to promote the increase of birth rates in Germany.
[ 4 ]. 1870 Penal Code, 1885 Commerce Code, 1889 Civil Code.
[ 5 ]. E. Pardo Bazán, La mujer española y otros artículos feministas, p. 192-193.
[ 6 ]. The Lyceum Club, Feminine Socialist Group, Spanish League for the Progress of Women, Concepción Arenal Society, amongst others.
[ 7 ]. ‘Los rojos’ or ‘the Reds’ was the term given to the opposing Republicans by their rivals, ‘las Franquistas’ - ‘the Fascists’.
[ 8 ]. 1953 Concordat re-endowed privileges to the Catholic Church, constituting a spiritual and political ‘reconquista’ for Spain.
[ 9 ]. ‘…la Iglesia continuaba adoctrinando sobre "criar y tener a todos los hijos que Dios te mande".’ – Josetxu, ‘Control de la natalidad’, El mujer en el franquismo, 2004.
[ 10 ]. I. Ria Del Carmen Muriedas, ‘Spanish Women’s History in the 20th century’, The Evolution of European Women through the Centuries, Comenius Project, (2006-2007), p. 1.
[ 11 ]. F. Lannon, ‘The Catholic Historical Review’, True Catholic Womanhood: Gender Ideology in Franco's Spain by A. G. Morcillo, Vol. 89.2 (2003) pp. 320-321.
[ 12 ]. R. Rubio-Marin, ‘Women and the Cost of Transition to Democratic Constitutionalism in Spain’, International Sociology, Vol. 18, No. 1 (2003) pp. 239-257.
[ 13 ]. V. Lorée Enders; P.B. Radcliff, Constructing Spanish Womanhood: Female Identity in Modern Spain (New York, 1999)
[ 14 ]. 1931 Constitution reforms including women’s suffrage as well as enactment of the 1932 Divorce Law.
[ 15 ]. Photograph adapted from P. Preston, ‘Doves of War: Four Women of Spain’, (London, 2002), p. 134.
[ 16 ]. M. Fórmica, Visto y vivido, p. 12 – 13.
[ 17 ]. As quoted by C. Campoamor, ‘El voto femenino y yo’, xii. – ‘If Spanish women were all workers, if Spanish women had gone to the university and had become liberated, I would stand up in front of the entire chamber to ask for the feminine vote.’
[ 18 ]. As quoted by Fagoaga, ‘La voz y el voto de las mujeres’, 188. – ‘there is not a single woman who will confess that she has not been interrogated by her confessor about her political ideologies.’
[ 19 ]. S. Mangini, ‘Memories of Resistance: Women’s Voices from the Spanish Civil War’ (Michigan, 1995), pp. 20 – 21
[ 20 ]. S. Real, ‘Las cárceles de Soledad Real’; J. Doña, ‘Desde la noche y la niebla’; M. Cuesta, Interview with S. Mangini, 1995.
[ 21 ]. C. GarcÍa, ‘Las cárceles de Soledad Real’, p. 27. – ‘My mother, in her religiousness, felt very alone because none of the three of us turned out religious…The three of us became revolutionaries because we all took after our father…’.
[ 22 ]. The Manchester Guardian, 30 July, 1936 as per General F. Franco – ‘…As long as the uprising benefits Spain by stamping out Communism I am content, but I have no wish to inflict unnecessary hardships. After all they are not all Communists.’
[ 23 ]. I. Ria Del Carmen Muriedas, ‘Spanish Women’s History in the 20th century’, The Evolution of European Women through the Centuries, Comenius Project, (2006-2007), p. 4.
[ 24 ]. D. Ibárruri, ‘¡No Pasarán!’ speech, 19 July 1936 in Madrid, Spain – ‘Long live the union of all anti-fascists! Long live the Republic of the people! The Fascists shall not pass!’ (Translated by Fabien Malouin.)
[ 25 ]. Pilar Espinosa was one of the “disappeared” named and commemorated by Spain’s civil Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (ARMH) (www.memoriahistorica.org).
[ 26 ]. H. Graham, ‘The War and its Shadow: Spain’s Civil War in Europe’s Long Twentieth Century’, (Sussex, 2012), p. 36.
[ 27 ]. G. Tremlett, ‘The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston – review’, The Guardian, 9 March 2012.
[ 28 ]. J. Cowans, Modern Spain: A Documentary History, (Pennsylvania, 2003), p. 246.