Milicianas, female fighters, fought in the Spanish Civil War. They came from a culture with iconic fighters, and where women had been recently empowered through direct political engagement in political organizations and labor unions. The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera saw women take more to the streets to protest and riot, though their actions were dismissed by male political leaders. The establishment of the Second Spanish Republic fostered an environment that encouraged active political participation across Spanish society, ultimately aiding many women in their decision to join the front lines, as the government expanded women's rights, including the right to vote, divorce, attend school, and run for office.
The Asturian miners' strike of 1934, three years into the Republic's history, saw women mobilized on a battlefront where they defended the rights of striking miners. This created paranoia on the right that women would take up arms and dispense with male leadership. Two years later, the Spanish Civil War started in Melilla and soon expanded nationwide. Women rose up to defend the Republic, playing a critical role in making the war a protracted affair. The start of the Civil War saw women mobilized in militias affiliated with unions and political organizations, with over 1,000 women joining up in the opening months to serve on the front lines of the Republican side. Unlike men, women actively sought out this choice. Communists and anarchists would make up the bulk of women on the front. Women also came from abroad to fight in the International Brigades.
On the front, women served alongside men in mostly mixed-gendered battalions, and were transferred around Spain. Despite a desire for combat, some of those in male leadership positions made them serve in support roles. Women were killed and injured on the front. The first Spanish Republican woman to die on the battlefield was Lina Ódena on 13 September 1936. They were on the front from July 1936 to March 1937, when they were officially demobilized. This decision was made by male political and military leaders, who were threatened by their presence. The decision was opposed by the women themselves.
The valuable contributions of Republican women fighters has been under reported, and women's own stories have frequently been ignored. This was a result of sexism, women fearing torture and death, and lack of primary sources.
Prelude to the Second Republic (1800 - 1922)
While women had been sporadically involved in combat in Spain, no large organized force of female fighters () had been mobilized in the prelude to the Second Republic. Notable women who had participated in the past included Napoleon resistance fighter Agustina de Aragón, Manuela Malasaña and Clara del Rey during the Peninsular War. During the Peninsular War, a writer for the La Gaceta de Madrid would ask why the city's women fighters exceeded their men in courage. Despite their status as national icons, these women were the exception to the rule about women's roles in war in this period.
Still, this period would start to set the stage for women's later involvement. Women continued to be locked out politically, and created auxiliary organizations to male dominated ones in order to be politically engaged in ideologies like socialism and anarchism. Depending on the level of acceptance from these groups and unions, women moderated their voices accordingly. As a consequence, when the Civil War came, anarchist women headed to the front lines in greater numbers than socialist women, as their political involvement was greater and more direct.
Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-1930)
When political activity occurred by women during the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, it was often spontaneous. Despite an increasing presence on the streets, women were often ignored by left-wing male political leaders who purported to support their cause. Despite this, women were increasingly involved in riots and protests, representing increased political awareness of their need to be more active in social and political spheres to enact change to improve their lives. Their participation politically though did not yet involve taking up arms against or in support of the government.
The abdication of Spain's king in 1930 would spell the end of the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, and usher in the era of the Second Republic.
Second Spanish Republic (1931 - 1937)
The rights women attained under the constitution of the Second Republic played a role in encouraging active participation in broader Spanish society, and ultimately served to assist many women in their decision later to head to the front. The rights included in the constitution included universal suffrage, the ability to run for office, employment in government offices without regards to gender during the hiring process, access to unified education across all levels, and divorce. The first elections in the Second Republic saw three women elected to office, before women had achieved the right to vote.
The Second Republic also heralded in a period of the creation of numerous women's political organizations across the political spectrum all around Spain. Committee of Women against War and Fascism () was created in 1933, with support from Partido Comunista de España (PCE) and Dolores Ibárruri acting as its major driver. It soon attracted women from across the political spectrum.
Existing tensions within the anarchist movement, as a result of deliberate exclusion or discouragement by male leadership, eventually led to the creation of Mujeres Libres by Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Mercedes Comaposada and Amparo Poch y Gascón in May 1936, shortly before the start of the Civil War. Initially based in Madrid and Barcelona, the organization had the purpose of seeking emancipation for women. Their goals also included "to combat the triple enslavement to which (women) have been subject: enslavement to ignorance, enslavement as women and enslavement as workers". Anarchists activity during the Second Republic, including classes on ideology, would be the roots from which many militia women () emerged.
October Revolution of 1934
Women played roles behind the scenes in one of the first major conflicts of the Second Republic, when workers' militias seized control of the mines in Asturias. Originally planned as a nationwide strike, the workers collective action only really took place in Asturias. Some women were involved in propaganda others in assisting the miners, and some in active combat confrontation. After the government quelled the insurrection by bringing in Moroccan legionaries, some 30,000 people found themselves in prison and another 1,000 were put into graves. A large number of those put into prison were women.
During fighting in Oviedo, women were on the battlefield serving in a variety of roles. At least one attended to the wounded while shelling went on around her. Others took up arms. Still more went from leftist position to leftist position with active shelling happening, providing fighters with food and motivational speeches. Aída Lafuente was among the Spanish women who took part in militant labor action in October 1934 in Asturias.
The Asturian conflict saw few instances of women initiated violence. This fed into paranoia among those on the right that women would violently try to seize power from men. Both on the left and the right, people viewed these women as heroic, and men wanted to limit their potential for further political action. Women were also involved in building barricades, clothing repair, and street protests. For many women, this was the first time they were civically engaged without a male chaperone as in many cases these women were working on behalf of imprisoned male relatives. Women were also killed in this conflict. Aída Lafuente was active on the front, and died during the Asturian conflict. The actions of women attached to Asociación de Mujeres contra la Guerra y el Fascismo in the event led to the organization being declared illegal later in the year. To get around this, the women re-organized as Organización Pro Infancia Obrera.
More recently, academics have debated if the Asturian miners' strike represented the real start of the Spanish Civil War. Imagery from the conflict was subsequently used by both sides for propaganda to further their own agenda, particularly inside PSOE who saw it the situation as a call for political unity on the left if they were to have any hope of countering the rise of fascism in Spain. PSOE consequently used a lot of gendered imagery to sell people on their ideas. Propaganda used featuring the events in October 1934 featured women in gender conforming ways that did not challenge their roles as feminine. This was done by male leadership with the intention of counteracting the image of strong women political leaders, who unnerved many on the right. Right wing propaganda at the time featured women as vicious killers, who defied gender norms to eliminate the idea of Spanish motherhood.
Start of the Civil War
On 17 July 1936, the Unión Militar Española launched a coup d'état in North Africa and Spain. They believed they would have an easy victory. They failed to predict the people's attachment to the Second Republic. With the Republic largely maintaining control over its Navy, Franco and others in the military successfully convinced Adolf Hitler to provide transport for Spanish troops from North Africa to the Iberian peninsula. These actions led to a divided Spain, and the protracted events of the Spanish Civil War. It would not officially end until 1 April 1939.
Franco's initial coalition included monarchists, conservative Republicans, Falange Española members, Carlist traditionalist, Roman Catholic clergy and the Spanish army. They had support from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republican side included Socialists, Communists, and various other left wing actors.
The military revolt was announced on the radio across the country, and people took to the streets immediately as they tried to determine the extent of the situation, and if it was a military or political conflict. Dolores Ibárruri would soon coin the phrase "¡No pasarán!" a few days later, on 18 July 1936 in Madrid while on the radio from the Ministry of the Interior's radio station, saying, "It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees. ¡No pasarán!"
At the start of the Civil War, there were two primary anarchist organizations: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI). Representing working-class people, they set out to prevent the Nationalists from seizing control while also serving as reforming influences inside Spain.
Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union signed the Non-Intervention Treaty in August 1936, promising not to provide material support for the war to any of the parties, even as Germany and Italy were already and continued to provide support to the Nationalist faction.
Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939)
Background Because of changes in society, women who wanted to be involved in the war against the Rebel forces had two options: they could fight on the front lines or they could serve in auxiliary roles away from the front. Their options were not limited, like that of many women near the battlefields of World War I, where the only available role was that of auxiliary role to support men on the front.