Do you know what the term feminism really means? Many people confuse it with what is called hembrismo, in order to define it we are going to talk about the history of feminism in Spain.
In today’s article we are going to mention:
definition of feminism
The feminist movement fights for equality between both genders and not for the superiority of women over men (hembrismo). The first theoretical references that we find about feminism come from the time of the French Enlightenment, this movement was born to fight for women’s rights.
History of feminism in Spain
Since the establishment of the first republic women begin to have more rights such as the right to vote, but it is not until the establishment of the second Republic when the Spanish feminist movement does not acquire so much strength.
There are three women who stand out, Clara CampoamorVictoria Kent and Margarita Nelken who became the first deputies of the Spanish Courts, women we can still hear about.
Later, many more women joined the Spanish Courts, such as María Lejárraga, Verenanda García Blanco, Matilde de la Torre and Francisca Bohigas. One of the best known women, Dolores Ibárruri, known as “The Passion Flower” and Julia Álvarez Resana are part of the Popular Front government. There are even more women who stand out during this stage, such as Federica Montseny, who is not part of parliament as she is an anarchist but of great importance.
So many women were part of parliament in 1936 that Spain is the country with the most women in politics.
During the Spanish civil war arises in Catalonia the Free Women’s Group with anarchist ideas, an active and radical feminist group who fight as militiawomen on the front, specifically, 20,000 women. In turn, they create the magazine Mujeres Libres, in it they demand basic claims for what we see today, but also other claims that have not yet been achieved. In this group we would highlight women such as Amparo Poch, Lucía Sánchez Saornil and Mercedes Comaposada.
In the time of Francoism women’s rights disappear, towards the 60s and 70s there is significant economic growth in Spain due to tourism, which allows for a different concept of women and they become aware that they have more rights, although the reality is that even the 1978 Constitution will not be recognized.