Spain is confronting a painful reckoning with its recent past as renewed scrutiny is given to the systematic oppression of women during the decades-long dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The regime, which began in 1939, reversed hard-won gains made during the preceding Second Republic, stripping women of legal and social autonomy. This article details the wide-ranging restrictions imposed on Spanish women – from limitations on financial independence and career opportunities to the pervasive control over their personal lives – and the enduring legacy of that era.
Spain is reckoning with its past as debates resurface about the rights and freedoms of women under the decades-long dictatorship of Francisco Franco. A stark contrast to the progress made during the preceding Second Republic, the Franco regime dramatically curtailed women’s autonomy, relegating them to a position of legal and social subservience.
Under Franco, which began in 1939, a woman often needed written permission from her husband or father to open a bank account. Marriage could mean the end of a woman’s career as she was expected to dedicate herself solely to domestic duties. Even leaving the house required adhering to strict standards of appearance – makeup, hair, and attire were considered mandatory. These restrictions were even more pronounced for women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, who faced even more limited opportunities.
While paid work for women was discouraged by the regime and legally restricted, economic necessity often forced many to seek employment. The majority of working-class women found themselves in low-paying, physically demanding jobs, often in the informal economy as domestic servants, cleaners, seamstresses, market vendors, or agricultural and industrial laborers – consistently earning less than their male counterparts.
The rollback of women’s rights began with the end of the Second Republic, a period marked by significant advancements. The 1931 Constitution established non-discrimination based on sex, granting women the right to vote, equal legal standing, equal employment opportunities, and equal rights within marriage. Laws were passed allowing women to hold public office, obtain divorces, and share parental authority. These gains, however, were quickly reversed under Franco.
During the 1920s and 30s, a new generation of women, primarily from the middle and upper classes, began to challenge traditional gender roles. They pursued education, participated in cultural life, and frequented universities, salons, and artistic performances. Fashion and new habits – smoking, working, and traveling alone – became symbols of their independence.
This era saw the emergence of groups like “Las Sinsombrero” (“The Hatless Ones”), women who openly defied social and aesthetic conventions, seeking visibility and artistic and professional autonomy. The group included artists like Maruja Mallo and Margarita Manso, while Rosa Chacel and María Zambrano made significant contributions to literature and philosophy.
The Second Republic also saw the rise of pioneering figures like Clara Campoamor, a lawyer and politician who championed women’s suffrage; Victoria Kent, the first woman to practice law before a military tribunal and the first female Director General of Prisons in Spain; Federica Montseny, the first woman minister in Spain; María Teresa León, a writer and intellectual involved in the antifascist movement; and Margarita Salas, a pioneering scientist.
With the advent of Franco’s regime, all these advances were systematically dismantled. Women were legally relegated to the status of minors, requiring the “licencia marital” – authorization from a husband or father – for any significant action, including working, managing property, traveling abroad, or exercising parental rights. Intellectuals and artists who had flourished during the Republic were erased from historical narratives and discriminated against professionally.
Education and media reinforced the idea that a woman’s primary role was as a devoted wife and mother. The “Sección Femenina,” the female branch of the Falange Española de las JONS, led by Pilar Primo de Rivera, imposed a strict re-education focused on submission and domestic service. José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, defined women’s role in these terms:
“We are not feminists. We do not understand that respecting women consists of removing her from her magnificent destiny and handing her over to male functions. I have always been saddened to see women in male exercises, toiling and frantic in a rivalry where she – amid the morbid complacency of male competitors – is bound to lose. True feminism should not consist of wanting the functions that are considered superior for women today, but in surrounding each female function with greater human and social dignity.”
The repression of women under Franco extended to brutal violence. Studies, including Rojas: las mujeres republicanas en la Guerra Civil española by Mary Nash, and El holocausto español: odio y exterminio en la Guerra Civil y después by Paul Preston, document the use of sexual violence as a weapon to punish and terrorize women associated with the Republican side or deemed dangerous to the regime.
These accounts detail instances of rape, both individual and gang assaults, often followed by murder, public humiliation, or further punishment. Women prisoners frequently endured recurring sexual abuse in prisons, barracks, or during transport. The systematic theft of babies from Republican mothers, who were then given to families loyal to the regime or institutions controlled by the Catholic Church, was also a widespread practice.
A 1940 decree allowed the state to remove parental rights based on “bad conduct,” leading to mass losses and disappearances documented by historians and memory organizations. Life was exceptionally difficult for women in working-class neighborhoods and shantytowns, requiring them to secure water, queue for food, care for large families with limited access to healthcare, all under constant social surveillance and without effective social protection.
The recovery of rights did not begin until after Franco’s death in 1975 and the adoption of the 1978 Constitution. The Constitution recognized legal equality between men and women, and discriminatory laws were repealed. Divorce was reinstated, equal access to employment and education was restored, and laws were passed to promote equal pay, maternity and paternity leave, and protection against gender-based violence.
Today, while full equality remains a challenge, Spain has laws promoting gender equality, representation quotas, and reproductive rights – including regulated abortion and contraception – and is a European leader in gender policies. Remembering this history is crucial, particularly as debates continue about the legacy of Franco and the potential for setbacks in gender equality. The case underscores the importance of safeguarding hard-won rights and resisting ideologies that seek to return to a past of oppression. With Franco, life was not better for women; they were subjected, without civil, political, or labor rights. Only democracy and feminism have advanced equality – a just society cannot afford to forget its past.
