Global InformationWomen on the Nationalist side of the Spanish Civil War information
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Women on the Nationalist side of the Spanish Civil War came from a culture and historical background that traditionally saw the role of women being defined by the Catholic Church. Prior to the founding of the Second Republic, women had few rights and were often under the control of their fathers or husbands. Their role in the state was to be a good mother, and the framework of the state supported that. They had few employment opportunities, were largely illiterate and their children often died during childbirth. Political activism was often based around Catholic organized women's groups. 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.
The birth of the Second Republic in 1931 saw the rights of women expand, including the granting of the right to vote. 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. The period of the Second Republic also saw the creation of Sección Femenina de la Falange Española, the only important Nationalist political organization for women in this period.
The Spanish Civil War started in July 1936. The treatment of women and children behind the lines was used by all sides as a way of trying to garner support for their sides in the Civil War both internally and internationally. Internally, Nationalist forces often had few problems killing women or using them as shields to try to attack Republican forces. Falangist women activists at times had difficulty in deciding whether they should to be in the public eye serving the cause or stay working in the home to serve Nationalist interests away from the front. Catholic women activists faced similar conflicts. The issue was mirrored in broader Nationalist society, which faced the need for women to fill support roles to help the war effort, while at the same time wanting women to remain pure, supporting traditional motherhood and working in the home. The concept of motherhood would also change fundamentally during the war, with mothers becoming the one in charge of the home. This idea would carry over into post-Francoist motherhood.
The end of the Civil War, and the victory of fascist forces, saw the return of traditional gender roles. This meant a return to gender norms of the past, except where economic needs required the presence of women in the workforce. Sección Femenina shaped the definition of Francoist womanhood, in state-sponsored Christian feminism. Nationalist women won benefits through motherhood, while women who supported Republicanism in this period often had their children stolen from them. Limited amounts of feminist beliefs were sanctioned by Francoist Spain, with much of the independently published material coming from aristocratic women.