Women in 1970s Francoist Spain were arrested and tortured for their involvement in underground unions during the Francoist period.
1970s Francoist Spain In the Basque Country, Basque and Spanish women remained socially isolated until the 1970s when younger women began to push their way inside the dominant culture. This included going to bars and restaurants. Female internal migrants in the Basque Country began to be accepted as more Basque than those who had lived in the region for generations, in part because they were more willing to become politically engaged on discussions of Basque nationalism. This political awakening also enabled these women to become more active in efforts to counter the regime.
Women in the Cortes Españolas provided negligible contributions to the body during the 1940s and 1950s, these women would be more influential during the 1960s and 1970s as Spain's economy changed and broader Spanish culture demanded contradictory and complex things from women as the regime tried to keep the changing culture in line with its fascist ideology.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Women's Section of Falange (Sección Femenina) aided in raising expectations of what was possible for women to accomplish by taking personal responsibility for their actions.
Women in opposition to the regime Socialist Unión General de Trabajadores and Communist Comisiones Obreras were the two leading underground secret unions during the 1960s and 1970s.Ballester, David (2003), Els homes sense nom. L’exili i la clandestinitat de la UGT de Catalunya (1939-1976). Barcelona: Viena Edicions-Fundació Josep Comaposada. Women were involved with UGT as part of their opposition to the regime.
Women were arrested and tortured for their involvement in the Francoist period. Security officers would insult women, questioning their status as both women and mothers.
The high-profile quarrels among leftist women and increasingly involvement of male dominated political organizations led to the creation in the 1970s of third-wave radical feminism in Spain, that was both similar and notably dissimilar to their American counterparts of the same name by being more explicitly socialist and politically focused on class in their orientation. These women would found Partido Feminist (PF) and Seminario Colectivo Feminista, an organization founded in 1976 as a result in a split inside PF.
Partido Comunista de España
Women in PCE were pressured to have sex in the mid-1960s and 1970s to prove that they were free. There was an element of lack of choice if they wanted to prove their leftist credentials. According to Merche Comalleba, "The PCE militants told us that we were some sluts, some whores, that our goals were neither feminist nor political nor anything". PCE student activist Paco Fernández Buey said of the mid-1960s, "It was natural for an imprisoned male communist's girlfriend to be virtuous and faithful to force, even if her partner was not going to get out of jail in decades."
Carmen Muriana worked for ODAG and then Standard Eléctrica y Plata Meneses during the 1970s. Her work put her into contact with a number of clandestine organizations including Liga Comunista Revolucionaria, CCOO and PCE. With them, she participated in strike actions and demonstrations. She also distributed union propaganda.
Partido Socialista Obrero Español Ludivina García Arias, daughter of Spanish exiles, returned to Spain from Mexico in 1969. She was part of a generational shift in PSOE leadership in the 1970s. Within a few years, she married PSOE Asturias leader Juan Luis Rodríguez Vigil. One of her first jobs was assisting other returning exiles in dealing with their paperwork.
During the early 1970s, Asturian socialists and militants played a critical role in providing a renewal for PSOE and UGT's leadership. During the early 1970s, Ana María Ruiz-Tagle Morales was in contact with exterior leadership in Toulouse.
Encarna Vega and Ludivina García Arias both spent time in hiding. They worked to coordinate their activities to promote UGT and PSOE in Oviedo during the early 1970s. During the 1970s, Encarna Vega ran a hair salon, and used her Oveido home to host PSOE party meetings before the local party found a more permanent home. Ana María Ruiz-Tagle Morales assisted in re-organizations socialist organizations in the Andalusia, and in reinvigorating PSOE Executive Committees during the early 1970s.
By 1970, many liberal and socialist women had left the Catholic Church in Spain. These women joined clandestine political organizations and trade unions. During the 1970s, the core female constituency of PSOE was composed of returned children of Spanish exiles. The women that proposed the Secretariado Femenino would be responsible for proposing its elimination at the 1970 PSOE Congress. Their argument was the organization had achieved limited results and PSOE had more pressing needs related to organizational restructuring. Carmen García Bloise was the primary defender of the Secretariado Femenino at the 1970 PSOE Congress. She believed that without it, it would be hard for women to become involved with and have their issues taking seriously within the socialist movement. Despite her opposition, PSOE dissolved the Secretariado Femenino. Despite Ana María Ruiz-Tagle Morales, Carmen García Bloise and Dulce del Moral working together in the early 1970s, there was never the possibility of Grupo Femenino del PSOE in Seville as it would have led to a rupture within PSOE. All three women considered the broader political goals of PSOE more important than the specific needs of socialist women as a group.
Basque nationalism Female ETA members were portrayed by the Spanish media as being one half of a terrorist couple. During the 1970s, many of the women who joined ETA did so as a result of encouragement from their boyfriends and husbands. They would often function as a couple within the organization's operations. In other cases, the recruitment by men would mean that these new female members were only viewed inside the organization as women who could fill traditional women's roles. Only when women joined on their own could they generally escape gender discrimination. During the latter parts of the regime, some women used ETA to establish their own independence and as a form of rejecting gender norms imposed on them by both the regime and by conservative Basque society. Becoming involved with ETA represented a dual rejection of both the state and of passive womanhood.
During the 1970s, ETA was closely aligned with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Their relationship was close enough with these groups that they held joint training activities together. María Dolores González Katarain joined ETA in the early 1970s when she was in her teens. While teaching in San Sebastian, she attained the rank of militante legal. She soon became involved with José Echevarría, nicknamed as Beltza. The couple had many mutual friends. Echevarría died in 1973 after accidentally setting off a bomb he was carrying.
Women's rights
Abortion Because abortion was illegal in Spain, during the 1970s, Spanish women who could afford it went to London to get abortions. Between 1974 and 1988, 195,993 Spanish women traveled to England and Wales to get an abortion. Women also went to the Netherlands in this period to have abortions. France was not an option, as at the time it required women who had abortions to be French residents and have resided in the country for at least three months. Women then needed to wait a week to reflect before they could get an abortion. An unknown number of women went to North Africa and Portugal for abortions. +Total abortions among Spanish women that took place in Spain, England and Wales, and the Netherlands1974-1995SpainEngland and WalesThe NetherlandsTotalrefYearsNumber of abortionsRate per 1000 reproductive
aged womenNumberRateNumberRateNumberRate1974 - -2,9780.4 - -2,9780.41975 - -43930.59 - -43930.59
Adultery During the early and mid-1970s, the Supreme Court received a large number of appeals from women over their adultery convictions. A man was convicted on 15 October 1976, and was granted an appeal a year and a half later. The Supreme Court said in granting the appeal, "nothing is said in the judgment appealed regarding the fact that the defendant had knowledge of the woman's marital status." Another woman who had a relationship was less fortunate, with the Supreme Court dismissing her appeal despite her claim that she had permission of her husband. The court said in rejecting the appeal, "there was no consent, because although the husband knew the behavior of his wife, he could not exercise the action while the guilty lived abroad." A man and a woman appealed their 14 September 1973 adultery conviction on the grounds of marital separation on the part of the woman. The Supreme Court rejected this, saying, "as long as the marriage is not annulled or the current legality is modified, the marriage bond subsists and its ethical and fidelity duties remain."
Contraception For many married Andalusian women in this period, there was a certain fatalism about the fact they would inevitably become mothers. It was difficult for them to try to negotiate family planning with their spouses.
Prohibitions against the sale of contraception in Andalusia in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were largely ineffective as women had various means to try to limit the number of children they had. This was especially true for women engaging in sex outside of marriage at a time when that practice, along with having children when single, were highly condemned by the government. Women were willing to take risks to have sex for pleasure by using some form of birth control.
Divorce During the Franco period, there was the concept of "hidden divorce". These were declarations by the Spanish Catholic Church that a marriage was nullified. They were different from ecclesiastical courts dissolution of marriages. These annulments were only allowed because of Pauline privilege, where the church may grant a nullification for a marriage where neither spouse has been baptized. This method of nullification may only be granted when one spouse wishes to convert to Catholicism and the other does not. This allows the converted Catholic spouse to be able to remarry a practicing Catholic. Another way a marriage could end under Catholic law was known as Petrine privilege. A divorce could be granted if the married coupled included a Catholic and non-Catholic spouse, where the Catholic spouse wanted the separation so they could remarry to a Catholic.
Divorce in the late Franco period and early transition period was available via ecclesiastical tribunals. These courts could nullify marriage for a fee. So, they were mostly only available to the rich, with the most famous types of this nullification involving Isabel Preysler and Carmencita Martínez Bordiú. The Civil Courts would only be involved in separation procedures at the provisional level. The Catholic Church was actively opposed to civil divorce in the mid and late 1970s.
By year
1970 Prince Juan Carlos was appointed as Franco's official successor in 1970, with Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco being the unofficial successor.
By 1970, many liberal and socialist women had left the Catholic Church in Spain. These women joined secret political organizations and trade unions. Women also stopped becoming nuns, with a 30% decrease in the number of women in convents from the previous decade.
In 1970, 2 million units of the pill were sold in Spain.
The 1970 Education Act guaranteed free education for all Spanish citizens.