Topic 2 - Attitudes towards women

Question 1

What was life like for women in the Nationalist zone?

Answer 1

• The falange established women’s sections with tradititonal preconceptions of what women should do - charity work and food production
• Women were taught subjects to prepare for domestic roles
• Strict expectations of what women wore - ‘sexually alluring’ clothes and makeup frowned upon
• Extra - martial sex banned, leading too much prostitution - soldiers paid for sex
• As soldier demands increased, from October 1937 women enlisted in running social services - such as health services and canteens
• Overall, wanted to reinforce view that a women’s place was at home

Question 2

What was life like for women in the Republican zone?

Answer 2

• Equal rights in marriage and divorce given
• Federica Montseny, anarchist became minister for health in 1936 - introduced clinics for women and measures legalizing abortion
• Creches were established so more women could work in factories
• Women wore trousers, went to cafes and bars unacomppanied and engaged in paid work

Question 3

How did women perform in the military?

Answer 3

• Mika Etchebehere became a symbol of revolutionary womanhood; leading a squadron of mostly male soldiers in the POUM militia
• Around 1000 women fought in socialist militia groups - milicians
• However, this was short - lived as Largo Caballeros’s government ordered women’s withdrawal