Gender and Media in Francoist Spain
I'm hoping to have the lay out of this project be a mix of media displaying the lives of women during the Republican and Nationalist controls of Spain, as well as the "ideals" for those women and their treatment, along with text examining the media and adding further information from research. The treatment and daily lives of these women were affected by which party had control of the government, the war itself, the part of the country they lived in, and many other factors. This exhibit will seek to explain the roller coaster of changes that Spanish women in this period endured and how that has affected their position in Spanish society today.
Before the civil war, Spain was essentially the polar opposite to Franco's rule. The progress made in some areas of Spain in the way of education, equal rights, and reproductive rights surpassed those in some of the rest of the world in the 1920s and 30s. Pamphlets such as this one contained information on family planning, as well as a calendar for women to fill out and track menstrual cycles for use with planning or avoiding pregnancy. The cover of this pamphlet is also very racy compared to advertising art in other countries at this point. Women were awarded the right to vote in 1931, and women such as Frederica Montseny ran for and held offices. Some women were educators who later faced prejudice and possible execution by the Francoist rebellion. Women worked, had a choice in what to wear, religious freedom, and access to certain rights such as education and driving. Although the women of Republican Spain had more freedom, this was still the 1930s and they were held to certain expectations. The ideal woman in this time would still be far more conservative than today's standards, but were allowed more freedoms at this time. Extreme opinions might dictate a woman that rebels against the Catholic church.
After the war, Franco instated many laws ans policies, but also societal norms that one must follow to avoid suspicion of being a Republican or Communist. These included the daily life of women, who were now stuck in the stereotypical bonds the women of most developed countries felt at this time.
This included largely being stay at home mothers or having small jobs at workplaces, rarely being in office, and expected to be married, not have sex beforehand, and have many children after being married. Catholicism enforced the standards everyone was to live by, and it also stretched to how media was presented to the masses, such as the image of an American actress that had been edited to hide her cleavage. Editing such as this also occurred in movies, as their posters and titles were changed, certain actor's names were left out, and scenes were removed, some scenes that just had a bed in the background were though to be too sexual. Women had to complete hours of cooking classes to be able to earn a driver's license. All of these come together to show that the Francoist ideal woman would be a homemaker, dress conservatively, do everything for her husband's approval and enjoyment, and follow orders to a tee.
