Women on the Nationalist side of the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War started in July 1936, and women across became involved in support roles like nurses or running charitable organizations, or serving nationalist interests by tending to their families behind the front.^[1][17][21]

Mothers had a variety of different experiences during the Civil War depending on their personal situations. Many mothers in rural areas were apolitical, no matter what side of the front they lived on. They had little access to resources that would have allowed them to be politically engaged, and were often short on resources required for basic living.^[23]

For many mothers in rural areas, the idea of being politically engaged was not possible.  They had too many things they had to do at home to have time for that.  They had to make soap. They had to work in the fields because of national rationing. Most Spanish homes during the war lacked running water at home. Mothers had to acquire water from local wells, lakes or rivers.  They had to wash clothing for the whole family, making a journey to a body of water to do that.  They also had to be home to prepare food when it was available.  Most homes at this time did not have modern kitchens, and mothers had to cook over open flames using hay and wood for heat.^[23]

During the war, mothers worked hard to try to maintain a sense of normalcy.  This included continuing domestic education, both among Republican and Nationalist women. Topics of focus included understanding the water, agriculture and religious education.  Spanish sayings used by mothers at this time included, "After you eat, do not read a single letter."  Reading was not viewed as good for digestion.  Children were also encouraged by their mothers in rural areas to take a siesta after a meal.^[23] Corporal punishment was often the norm for many mothers of all political persuasions during this period.^[23] Many mothers went to great lengths to try to feed their children during periods of food shortages.  They might sneak into other towns to try to get food rations when the ration in their town was too small.  They might forgo eating themselves so their children could have bigger portions.^[23]

The war upset the social structure inside the family.  Because of survival issues related to food and fear of political persecution, the skills of mother in acquiring and preparing food while also remaining politically invisible meant they began to take on the role of head of household.  Silence became a virtue, because doing or saying the wrong thing could lead to death at the hands of Nationalist forces.  Women were less likely to be harassed than men, which meant they were often more out of the home.  This could create tensions behind closed doors, as it attacked traditional Spanish definitions of masculinity as it made the home the domain of the mother.  This change of women being the boss of the home would continue after the Civil War for both Republican and Nationalist families.^[23]

Many poor, illiterate and unemployed women often found themselves immersed in the ideological battle of the Civil War and its connected violence as a result of forces beyond her control.  Some of these women, mostly on the left, chose to try to reassert control by becoming active participants in the violent struggle going on around them.^[22][24] When it came to deciding who was right and wrong, many women had to use their own moral judgement formed by a lifetime to do so. They were not guided by political radicalization leading to ideological based morality.^[24]

Women and children behind the lines were used by all sides, as a way of trying to garner support for their sides in the Civil War both internally and internationally.^[25][26] Nationalists often appealed to Catholics overseas, condemning Republican bombings on women in civil populations, claiming over 300,000 women and children had been killed. This met with limited success in the United States, where Catholics were uneasy with bombings against women and children that were being committed by both sides.^[25]

In the Republican offensive against Nationalist held Teruel from December 1937 to February 1938, brigades on the ground tried to honor Indalecio Prieto's call to protect civilians, and particularly women and children.  They sometimes stopped shelling buildings when people inside made clear they were non-combatant women and children.  The reality of the offensive and life on the front lines meant many of those civilians had nothing.  Women would often risk their lives to loot recently shelled buildings. They needed furniture to burn to melt snow for water, to cook and to provide some heat. Many women, on both sides in the city, died of starvation during the month long battle.^[8]

One tactic employed by Nationalist troops was to use women to try to lure out Republican forces from concealed positions. They would use women's voices or got women to say they were civilians under siege. As a consequence, some Republican troops were hesitant when confronting women under apparent siege on the front as they did not always trust claims of needs for assistance.^[27]

Falangist women activists were often divided into groups, which were largely based on age.  Younger activists often to be outside the home, working on Nationalist goals in Nationalist women's organizations.  Older women Nationalist activists believed they should be outside the public eye, serving Nationalist interests by working in the home.^[18] Nationalist women in more rural, less cosmopolitan cities, often had more privileges than their urban counterparts.  They were able to leave the house, regardless of their marital status, and engage in the everyday tasks required for living.  Few people noticed and cared.^[28] While Nationalist forces believed women should be at home, the realities of war meant that women were required to work outside the home, in factories and other businesses.^[18] During the war, Nationalist publications encouraged women to stay at home in service of the family. They were discouraged from shopping, going to the movies and engaging in other behavior viewed as frivolous by Nationalist male leaders.^[19]

Nationalist supporting women behind Nationalist lines also sometimes were involved in auxiliary roles.  This included working as nurses, provisioners and support personnel.^[2][19] They were encouraged to do so by men as a means of supporting the traditional Spanish family structure.^[19]

Many Spanish women during the war sided with the Nationalists, embracing the strict gender roles put forth by the Catholic Church.  The sister of José Antonio Primo de Rivera worked to mobilize these women in Sección Femenina, an umbrella organization of Falange, during the pre-Civil War period and later during the war. From 300 members in 1934, its membership swelled to 400,000 in 1938.  Women involved with the organization often went on to work for Auxilio Social, which acted as a social assistance organization for widows, orphans and the destitute by providing them with food and clothing.  In all these roles, Spanish Nationalist women never did so with the intention of challenging male authority; they wanted to see the continuance of Republican gender roles and to strengthen the Spanish family.^[4][17][12]

Starting in October 1937,  Sección Femenina de la Falange Española started actively recruiting single women between the ages of 17 and 35 to do social work as a volunteer for six months.^[18][19][12] In some cases, service was mandatory. It represented the first mass mobilization of women by Nationalist forces.^[19][12]

Auxilio Social became the largest Nationalist social aid organization during the civil war.  It was modeled after Nazi Germany's Winter Aid program.  Staffed by women wearing blue uniforms with white aprons, they worked in taking care of children and other displaced people, and in distributing aid.  The purpose of women in this organization was to serve others in maintaining traditional Spanish families within a patriarchal state.^[18][8]

Nationalist women had another organization for which they could volunteer.  It was the Margaritas, and came from traditionalist Carlist philosophies.  Their purpose was to support Spanish families, with a husband in charge of a pious and religious wife and obedient children.^[18][8]

Pilar Jaraiz Franco, the niece of Francisco Frano, sympathized with her uncle's politics and, during the Civil War, spent some time in a Republican prison. Despite this, she gradually moved towards more socialist leanings as a result of the rigid gender norms forced on her during her childhood.^[6]

Salamanca and Burgos became home to large numbers of women who were wives of military officers on the Nationalist side.  They could largely live comfortable, as their part of Spain was not in a state of total war.  Both cities had zones for homes, and military zones.  The military zones were home to medical services and to prostitutes.  Nationalist nurses working in these zones were viewed as essential but transgressive, as they were occupying male spaces.  As such, their behavior was always highly watched.^[28] Poverty and economic need often pushed many women into prostitution, where it flourished behind Nationalist lines.  That Nationalist forces were fighting for a Spain that supported traditional family structures and opposed to prostitution did nothing to stop Nationalist officers from using prostitutes.^[19]

Despite nationalist ideals about the role of women, the Nationalist attracted single women from abroad to their cause. These women, by their mere existence, transgressed Nationalist teachings about women as they were traveling alone, accompanied by male guardians, and acting on their own behalves. Many were literate and well traveled. Many came from European aristocratic and were upper class. Full of self-confidence, they made Nationalists uncomfortable, especially in contrast to the typically poor, illiterate Spanish woman who had not traveled. Their advocacy on behalf of Franco was viewed by many as counter-productive as it suggested women could find success outside the home, when Francoists and Nationalists believed women belonged in the home.^[28]

Nationalist forces did attract foreign women writers and photographers to their cause.  These included Helen Nicholson, the Baroness de Zglinitzki, Aileen O'Brien, Jane Anderson, Pip Scott-Ellis, and Florence Farmborough.^[28][25] These women were all advocates of right wing-ideology, and militantly opposed to Communism.  They came from a wide variety of right wing ideologies, including monarchists and fascism.^[28]

Many Nationalist sympathizing women were killed behind Republican lines. Around 8,000 priests and nuns were tortured or murdered behind Republican lines.^[24] These deaths were part of the over 89,000 executions historians believed were conducted by Republican forces in the lead up to and during the Spanish Civil War.^[24]

The end of the Civil War, and the victory of fascist forces, saw the return of traditional gender roles to Spain.  This included the unacceptability of women serving in combat roles in the military.^[1] Where gender roles were more flexible, it was often around employment issues where women felt an economic necessity to make their voices heard.^[1] It was also more acceptable for women to work outside the home, though the options were still limited to roles defined as more traditionally female.  This included working as nurses, or in soup kitchens or orphanages.^[1]

With strict gender norms back in place, women who had found acceptable employment prior and during the Civil War found employment opportunities even more difficult in the post war period.  Teachers who had worked for Republican schools often could not find employment.^[2]

Gender norms were further reinforced by Sección Femenina de la Falange Española. Opportunities to work, study or travel required taking classes on cooking, sewing, childcare and the role of women before they were granted.  If women did not take or pass these classes, they were denied these opportunities.^[2][12]

While motherhood was an important ideal during the Franco period, it was one the regime only wanted to see perpetuated among those who shared in their political ideology.^[7][29] Children of mothers with leftist or Republican leanings were often removed from their care in order to prevent mothers from sharing their ideology with their offspring.^[7][29]

Sección Femenina de la Falange Española worked to depict feminism as a form of depravity.  It associated feminism with drug abuse and other evils plaguing society.^[2] While not meeting the classical definition of a feminist organization, the state supported its own desired goals for female expression, expressed through Sección Femenina, offered Isabel the Catholic and Teresa of Avila as symbols for Spanish women to look up. They had first been used by Francoist women during the Civil War, and reminded women that their role was to become mothers and to engage in pious domesticity.^[7][12]

Sección Femenina did things like creating agricultural and adult schools, sports centers and libraries. They organized cultural groups and discussion groups. They published their own magazine.  They worked to preserve traditional rural life.  All of this was done with the underlying goal of encouraging traditional womanhood, of remaining in the home as a good daughter, and later as a good wife and mother.^[12] The pride that women got in completing these domestic tasks associated with Sección Femenina's teachings has been described by Guiliana Di Febo as Christian feminism.^[12]

Some feminists in Franco's Spain tried to subvert government goals and change policy by becoming directly involved in government institutions. The Castilian Association of Homemakers and Consumers was one organization that attracted the type of feminist that believed that change should come from within.^[12] They became regime accepted vehicles for female dissent.^[12]

The pillars for a New Spain in the Franco era became national syndicalism and national Catholicism.^[3] The Franco period saw an extreme regression in the rights of women.^[30] The situation for women was more regressive than that of women in Nazi Germany under Hitler.^[30]

The legal status for women in many cases reverted to that stipulated in the Napoleonic Code that had first been installed in Spanish law in 1889.^[2] The post Civil War period saw the return of laws that effectively made wards of women.  They were dependent on husbands, fathers and brothers to work outside the house.^[2]  Women needed permission to do an array of basic activities, including applying for a job, opening a bank account or going on a trip.  The law during the Franco period allowed husbands to killed their wives if they caught them in the act of adultery.^[30] In March 1938, Franco suppressed the laws regarding civil matrimony and divorce that had been enacted by the Second Republic.^[3] It was not until later labor shortages that laws around employment opportunities for women changed. These laws passed in 1958 and 1961 provided a very narrow opportunity, but an opportunity, for women to be engaged in non-domestic labor outside the household.^[2] Franco's policies towards women also resulted in Spain having one of the highest rates of illiteracy for women in the western world.^[12]

Inside Spain, well connected, often aristocratic Spanish feminists were sometimes able to publish their works for domestic consumption by 1948.  This includes works by 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 from exile, also saw their works smuggled into Spain.^[2]