Feminists were involved in the Spanish Civil War, although the conditions underlying their involvement pre-dated the Second Republic.
The feminist movement in Spain started during the 19th century, aiming to secure rights for women and striving for more than women could expect from their place in the home. Supported by a number of Spanish writers, it was one of the first feminist movements to inject anarchism into feminist thinking. In contrast to feminism developments elsewhere, many Spanish feminists sought to realize their goals in this period through the education of women. When political activity took place to further feminist goals and the more general aspirations of groups, it tended to be spontaneous and easily dismissed by men. Margarita Nelken, María Martínez Sierra and Carmen de Burgos were all important pre-Republic writers who influenced feminist thinking inside Spain.
The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera provided more opportunities for women to be engaged politically, with the appointment of women to the Congreso de los Diputados. Thought they were not successful, the first steps were also taken towards women's suffrage. Feminine independence, principally organized in Madrid around the Lyceum Club, was condemned by members of the Catholic Church and viewed as scandalous. Women continued to be locked out of political and labor organizations such as the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo.
Feminism in the Republican and Civil War eras was typically about "dual militancy" and was greatly influenced by anarchism and by an understanding of potential societal developments. Yet increased women's emancipation was constantly threatened by leftist attempts to prevent their opponents from taking power. Most of the advances gained, including the right to vote, civil marriage, abortion and access to birth control would be lost before the Second Republic fell. Clara Campoamor Rodríguez was the most important proponent of women's suffrage in this period.
During the Civil War, mainstream leftist feminism often took on an individualistic approach to addressing inequalities, with battles as to whether their autonomy should be personal or political. Mujeres Libres, founded by Lucia Sánchez Saornil, Mercedes Comaposada and Amparo Poch y Gascón in May 1936, became one of the most important organizations for feminists. Dolores Ibárruri earned herself the nickname La Pasionaria as she traveled the country to speak in opposition to Francoist forces, making her one of the most visible and important feminist voices.
Francisco Franco and his forces won the Civil War in 1939. Mainstream feminism subsequently disappeared from public discourse, largely being replaced publicly by an oppressive form of state-sponsored feminism that was no more than support for Spain's traditional gender roles that denied women personal and political autonomy. Traditional gender norms returned with force. Sanctioned feminist writing in the post-war period stemmed largely from the works of aristocratic women such as María Lafitte, Countess of Campo Alanaga, and Lilí Álvarez. Works by Republican pre-war feminists like Rosa Chacel and María Zambrano, who continued to write in exile, saw their works smuggled into Spain. As a result, the contributions women and feminists had made during the Civil War were largely forgotten.
Prelude to the Second Republic (1800 - 1922) During the 1800s, the most important women advocating for women's rights in Spain were Teresa Claramunt and Teresa Mañé, both coming from the anarchist movement. Ángeles López de Ayala y Molero founded Sociedad Progresiva Femenina in 1898, one of Spain's earliest feminist organizations alongside Sociedad Autónoma de Mujeres de Barcelona which she had founded in 1892. They built on ideas that were being developed by the North American feminists, Voltairine de Cleyre and Emma Goldman. Spanish women were among the first to inject anarchism into feminist thinking.
The feminism of Spain in the period between 1900 and 1930 differed from similar movements in the United Kingdom and the United States. It also tended to come from a liberal or leftist perspective. Spanish feminist intellectuals in this period included the militant socialist María Cambrils, who published Feminismo socialista. They also included Clara Campoamor, Virginia González and Carmen de Burgos. One of the more notable pre-Republic feminists was lawyer and prison reformer Concepción Arenal. She believed it was important for women to strive for more in life than what was to be found in the confines of the home.
The feminist movement began to get traction in 1915, when the National Association of Spanish Women (ANME) first started to work together to address women's needs. ANME's early feminism was characterized by its right wing leanings, as a result of its being associated with Spain's upper classes.
The Seccion Varia de Trabajadoras anarco-colectivistas de Sabadell was founded by Claramunt and other like-minded women in 1884. Working with Ateneo Obreros, the organizations sought to emancipate both men and women through education. It folded sometime before late 1885.
Agrupación de Trabajadores was created as a labor organization in 1891 by Claramunt to support her feminist ideals, and soon organized public meetings. The organization argued that women were being doubly punished by society, as they were expected to work outside the home to provide for the family while at the same time having to meet all the domestic needs of the household. The organization was never particularly successful in its goals as many women in the workforce did not see a need for representation by a union.
Belén Ságarra had been involved with the Sociedad Autónoma de Mujeres de Barcelona, an organization founded around 1891. She and Claramunt sought to create Associación Librepensadora de Mujeres. Ságarra was prevented from doing so after being arrested in 1896 for being anti-Christian and promoting free-thinking.
Employment and labor organizations While 17% of women worked in 1877, most were peasants who were involved in agriculture. Despite Spanish industrialization in Spain, including that of agriculture in the 1900s, restrictive gender norms meant only 9% of women were employed by 1930. This represented a drop of 12% or 0.5 million women in the workforce from 1877 to 1930. Prostitution was legal in pre-Second Republic Spain, and poor, white women lived in fear of being trafficked as slaves. By the 1900s, women could and did sometimes work in factory sweatshops, alongside young male workers. Most women seeking employment worked in the homes of the more affluent. These jobs paid so little that female workers often struggled to earn enough to feed themselves. When women were involved in factory work in this period, they were often paid half the wage of their male counterparts.
Despite the lack of presence in the workforce, women did engage in labor protests in specific industries where they were over represented. This included labor action in Madrid in 1830, where there were five days of rioting over wage reductions and unsafe working conditions by 3,000 female tobacco workers. Women tobacco workers were also the first to unionize, creating their first union in 1918. The union was successful in doubling wages for its workers in 1914 and 1920. It also successfully had workers wages tripled in 1930. Their labor actions continued into the Second Republic. Despite their involvement in organizing labor in tobacco, women were largely absent from late nineteenth century labor movements in Spain. Although there were few opportunities for women, some did manage to get highly ranked government positions, though these were few and far between.
Political activity The nineteenth century saw for the first time the emergence of a true middle class in Spain. This precipitated internal questioning among the Spanish elite about social inequalities that had existed in Spain since the founding of the modern Spanish state when Isabella of Castille married Ferdinand of Aragon, solidifying Spanish territory under one government. These discussions would see the creation of the First Spanish Republic from 1873 to 1874.
The Institución Libre de Enseñanza (ILE) was founded by persecuted Spanish intellectuals, catering to freethinkers in educational facilities outside government control. The ILE was important in forming ideologies leading to the creation of the Second Spanish Republic. It was revolutionary in Spain in that it was one of the first organizations to recognize the potential of women, though this was still viewed as limited. To this end, ILE member Fernando de Castro, then dean of the Universidad de Madrid, created the "Sunday Lectures for the Education of Women" in 1868.
Direct women's involvement As women in the pre-Republican period were largely confined to domestic spheres, their political activity tended to be centered, though not always, around issues related to consumer activities. Women protested and rioted in this period over goods and services shortages, high rents and high prices of consumer goods. Their protests were designed to encourage the government to change its practices by addressing these issues.
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party () (PSOE) was founded in 1879 as primarily a labor movement organization. Its early pre-1900s membership was almost exclusively male, and they had no interest in women's issues or feminist goals. The first women's group inside PSOE was not founded until 1902. It would not be the last. PSOE's women's groups remained small and subordinate to larger, male-dominated socialist groups. The early 1900s, 1910s and 1920s also saw a growth of women in the workforce in sectors such as nursing and education. These women also joined unions. During the 1920s and early 1930s, women became more involved with socialist movements. This did not translate into participation on the political side, as socialist political organizations were openly hostile to women and not interested in attracting their involvement. When women did create socialist organizations, they were auxiliary to those dominated by men. This was the case for Group of Feminist Socialists of Madrid and Feminist Socialist Group. Unlike their anarchist peers, socialist women played much more passive roles. As a consequence, when the Civil War started, few socialist women headed to the front lines. Prominent women socialists in this period included Matilde Huici, Matilde Cantos and Matilde de la Torre. Largely participating in women's caucuses, their advocacy was often ineffective in pressing for women's rights as their position inside the broader socialist party governance structure was very weak.
Despite barriers for political participation, some anarchist women were politically engaged in this period despite gender tensions which served to limit their participation. One example of such tension occurred during the 1918 Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) Congress, where gender-based tensions among anarchists in Spain were visibly present. Men tried to use the Congress to assert their own power over women to set goals and policies that would have them dominate both the public and private sphere. This was in large part because male anarchists did not want to see a power dynamic change which would result in diminishing their own status.
Few women were involved in the Communist Party of Spain () (PCE), but Dolores Ibárruri joined by the early 1920s. An active participant in organizing labor strikes and a firm believer in women's rights, Ibárruri was elected to the PCE Central Committee in 1930. Two years later, she was the head of its Women's Commission.