Spanish Anarchism and

Women's Liberation

Temma E. Kaplan

One of the chief ideologicaldisputes between the Spanish anar-

chists and communistsduring the Civil War was the anarchists'
insistencethat social revolutionshould not be postponeduntil the
war was won; without the social revolution(by which they meant
the defeat of authoritarianism and the transformationof all social
and economic relations and institutions to permit maximum
individual freedom, self-expression, and spontaneity), the war
would be just anotherchangingof the guard,so familiarin Spanish
history.
Historically,Spanishanarchistshadbeen concernedwithchanges
in educationand marriagerelationshipsas meansof social change.
They opposed the authoritarian,patriarchalfamily, arguingthat
it was based on privateproperty,on the father'sownershipof his
wife and children.1They hoped to end the oppressionof Spanish
working-classwomen by ending formalmarriageand substituting
free alliances of individuals, and to eliminate prostitution by
providingtrainingprogrammes,medicalfacilities,and housingfor
the former prostitutes.2In towns where the anarchistsgained
control, even for short periods, in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries,they immediatelyattemptedto abolish legal
marriage,among other things.3
Again, in the first year of the Civil War, from July 1936 to the
late spring of 1937, anarchistswere able to put some of their
theoretical ideas into practice. Visitors to anarchist collectives
remarkedon the efficiencyof the communes.What most struck
observers was the initial absence of oppressive bureaucracyin
1 Anselmo Lorenzo, El Proletariado Militante, Origen del Sindicalismo
(Toulouse, 1946), 214-17.
2 H-E. Kaminski, Ceux de Barcelone
(Paris, 1937), 70.
3 Juan Diaz del Moral, Historia de las Agitaciones Campesinas Andaluzas
(Madrid, I967), 205, 224.
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 CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

cities such as Barcelona,and the sense of communitythroughout

the loyalistsector.There aremanyaccountsof the jubilationwhich
followed the assumptionof control by men and women of the
factoriesor of landwherethey had formerlybeen employed.4But a
socialrevolution,accordingto Spanishanarchisttheory,also trans-
forms personaland social relationshipsand engenders 'a certain
level of culture, consciousnessof power, and capacity for self-
government',in all membersof the community,includingwomen.
Yet, althoughwe might expect it to have been otherwise,the con-
dition and treatmentof women in the anarchistareas continued
much as it had before the Civil War.5
This paperis concernedwith anarchistattemptsto aid working-
class women in the period between the end of the first world war
and the close of the Civil War, years in which the Spanish anar-
chists assimilatedsyndicalistideas, built more effectiveorganiza-
tions, and won far-reachingif short-livedvictories;it will attempt
to showthat,in spiteof theirawarenessof the exploitationof women
in capitalistsociety, they did not developa programmeto prevent
similarexploitationin revolutionarysociety. There is no reasonto
believe that the condition of Spanish women would have been
fundamentallychanged if the anarchistshad won the war. Un-
willing to deal with conceptsof classor representativeinstitutions,
they refused to make special provisions for particularinterest
groups.This inhibitionwas a crucialreasonwhy the socialreforms
achievedby anarchistsafter I918 and duringthe social revolution
of 1936-37 did not attempt to transformthe lives of Spanish
working-classwomen.
Anarchist women took little or no part in the women's rights
movement of the early twenties, which was primarilyconcerned
with the admissionof women into the professions.6Except for the
4 Franz Borkenau, The Spanish Cockpit (I937); Gerald Brenan, The Spanish
Labyrinth (I943); George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (1938); Pierre Broue and
Emile Temine, La Revolution et la Guerre d'Espagne (Paris, I96I). For an
interesting re-interpretation of the anarchists' ideas see Noam Chomsky,
'Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship', American Power and the New Mandarins
(New York, 1967).
5 D.A. de Santillan, After the Revolution: Economic Reconstruction in Spain
Today (New York, I937), 95. Kaminski mentions that in industrial collectives
he visited women even had separate dining rooms (70).
6 Maria Laffitte, Condesa de Campo Angel, La Mujer en Espala: Cien Aiios de
su Historia, I860-1960 (Madrid I963), 215.
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 SPANISH ANARCHISM AND WOMEN'S LIBERATION

Socialist, MargaritaNelkin, who stood aside from the feminist

movement as such, no one on the left spoke about the need for
speciallegislationfor workingwomen.7
The anarchistNational Confederationof Labour, the CNT,
foundedin I911, had no minimalpoliticalprogramme,but placed
its hopes on a generalstrikethat would topple the governmentand
begin a social revolution.Anarchistwomen at first had no pro-
visionaldemands,such as those raisedlaterin the war: child-care
centres in the factoriesand the ruralcommunitiesto care for the
children of workingmothers; liberalizationof the paternitylaws
andlaws governingprostitution,whichwouldmakefathersassume
some responsibilityfor their children;and regulationof the needle
trades,in which the workwas done mainlyby women at home.
The greatestadvancein laws governingwomen workerscame
under the dictatorshipof Primo de Rivera, when the CNT was
outlawed. In the late twenties, legislationwas passed which re-
quired paid maternity leave for pregnant women for six weeks
before and after confinement,and providedfor one hour release
from work each day for a mother to nurse her child. Only this
second part of the law was ever enforced. Legislationpassed in
I927 prohibitednight work for women in factories, workshops,
and hospitalsbetween the hours of 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.; but since
employersjuggledshifts, and the law specificallyexcludedhome-
work(the sweatedtrades)and domesticservice,the legislationwas
of negligible value. Even laws passed under the Republic, such
as that on compulsorymaternityinsurance(26 May I93I) and the
decree of i July I93I which establishedthe eight-hourday, did
little to change the condition of workingwomen, most of whom
were engaged in domestic service and homework.8Despite the
inadequaciesof these laws, anarchistwomen did not campaignfor
greater legal protection because, like the men, they were com-
mitted to social revolutionratherthan to politicalreforms.
The anarcho-syndicalistCNT made no effort to organizethe
industries in which women workerspredominated,such as lace
and cigarmanufacturing,or the smalltextile establishmentswhich
7 Margarita Nelkin's works include La Condicidn Social de la Mujer en
Espana
(Barcelona, 1922), and La Mujer ante las Cortes Constituyentes (Madrid, I93I).
8 International Labour Office: Studies and Reports, series I, Women's Work
under Labour Law: A Survey of Protective Legislation (1932), 84-85, 146-7;
The Law and Women's Work (I934), I67.

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 CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

gavepiece workto womenwho workedin theirown homes,usually

in execrablehealth conditions,with bad lighting and ventilation.
A I918 report claimed that of the 2,500 female workers in Bar-
celona who had typhoid, I,600 were seamstresses.Among female
workers,pulmonarytuberculosiswas increasingas a result of bad
and unhygienic domestic working conditions. The women who
workedat home in the sweatedtradesdid not fall underthe super-
vision of even the minimal laws which regulatedfactorywork in
Spain.9Women workerswere paid lower wages than men and did
not receive even the small benefits given to male workers,even
when they were the sole support of their families. This did not
trouble the anarchist trade unions, many of whose members
viewedwomenas potentialstrike-breakers, a readysourceof cheap
labour. Blinded sometimes by anticlericalism,many anarchists
were hostile to women workerswho were dependenton religious
and charitableinstitutions, which alone provided social services
to the poor.
The Republic passed few laws dealing with the problems of
women. Issues of speciallabourprotection,the provisionof child-
care facilitiesin factoriesemployingwomen, illegitimatechildren,
prostitution,and sex educationwere seldom raisedin the Cortes.
The divorce law was passed by a vote of 260 to 23, with 177 ab-
stentions; the law againstprostitutionwas opposedby the liberals
but was passed over their objections on 28 June I935.10 While it
abolished prostitution,it made no provision for alternativeem-
ployment for prostitutes, nor did it set up hostels where these
women could live and supporttheir children.Ostensiblya law for
women, it was really a punitive action against the most abject
among them.
The real changein the attitudetowardsthe specialneeds and role
of women came only with the outbreakof the Civil War, with the
increasingneed for the labour of women in the factoriesand in
agriculturaland industrial collectives. After November I936,
when anarchistsentered the national Republican Government,
after years of standing aloof from political involvement of any
9 'Preparaci6n de un proyecto de la ley sobre el trabajo a domicilio', Instituto
de Reformas Sociales: Secciones tecnico-administrativas (Madrid, 1918); Nelkin,
La Mujer ante las Cortes Constituyentes, 84-85.
10 Laffitte, 218-20.

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 SPANISH ANARCHISM AND WOMEN'S LIBERATION

kind, the special situationof women became a politicalissue as a

result of the activities of the anarchistMinister of Health and
Social Service, Federica Montseny, and of the women's group,
MujeresLibres(Free Women). As more and more women entered
the labour force, anarchist newspapers, which had previously
paid little or no attention to women workers, began devoting
special columns to their activities and organizations.They dealt
with acts of individualheroism,but also coveredthe more mun-
danejobs womenwere doing in employmentrangingfromnursing
to workin heavy industry.11
In the spring of 1936, Mujeres Libres, a women's group in
Madrid which had been meeting regularly for some months,
beganto publisha periodicalcalledMujeresLibres.12Led by Lucia
Sanchez Saornil,MercedesComaposada,and Dr AmparoPoch y
Gascon, the group was composed of illiterateas well as college-
educated women. They set up a school to teach working-class
womento readand do skilledwork.The FeminineCultureGroup
(Centrode CulturaFeminina)of Barcelona,composedof working-
and middle-class women, many of whom belonged to anarcho-
syndicalistorganizations,heard of the Madrid women, affiliated
with them, and constitutedthemselvesa branchof MujeresLibres.
By the summerof 1938, the organizationhadgrownto be a federa-
tion of 30,000 women.13By the end of the war, a small group
which had been formed to carryon educationalwork and to in-
vestigate the problems of working women had become a mass
organizationdevoted to the principle of women's right to work,
their need to develop skills, and their right to social services.
For the women of Mujeres Libres, the Civil War became
synonymouswith the struggleof women's liberationfrom menial
jobs, from ignorance,from exploitationat work, and from unjust
treatmentby fathersand husbands.They believedthat the rights
they had won as a result of wartimelabour shortagescould be
maintainedand extendedonly throughcontinuedsocialrevolution.
Furthermore,they arguedthat to complete the social revolution,
women had to be freed from oppressionby men as well as by
11 See Tierra y Libertad, Solidaridad Obrera, Frente
Libertario, and CN T for
the period from July I936 through April I939; see also the five undated issues of
Mujeres Libres in the collection of the Institute for Social History, Amsterdam.
12 M.
Comaposada, 'Origen y Actividades de la Agrupaci6n "Mujeres
Libres"', Tierra y Libertad, 27 March I937, 8.
13 Ibid., 30 July I938, 4.

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 CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

capitalists.According to an article published in MujeresLibres,

writtenby Emma Goldman,the Americananarchist,'It is certain
that there can be no real emancipationwhile one individualcon-
tinues to dominateanotheror while one class oppressesanother.
Still less possibleis the emancipationof the humanracewhile one
sex dominatesthe other.'14
Under the direction of Lucia Sanchez Saornil, an activist in
anarchist causes, the Mujeres Libres group developed as a
nationalfederationwith local, regional,and nationalcommittees.
At their national conference, held in Valencia in August I937,
it was announcedthat there were alreadyforty-threebranchesin
Catalonia,twenty in Aragon,twenty-fivein Guadalajara,fifteenin
the Levant, and others in Castile and Andalucia.15Although
nominallydirectedby Lucia Sanchezin Madrid,Mujeres Libres
was a federal,decentralizedorganizationwhich enteredinto local
alliances with other anarchistgroups. At the beginning of the
Civil War it was the best organizedwomen's group on the left,
but it was not the only women's organizationin Spain. Catholic
leagues organizedwomen agriculturaland industrialworkers,and
both the Carlistsand the Falangehad importantwomen's unions.
Womenon the right playedactiveroles in the Civil Waras nurses,
laundresses,and as cooks at the front.16Communistand socialist
women also took jobs in the factories,on farms,in hospitals,or in
the civil service.17On both sides women served in the armiesand
militias.
MujeresLibreswas uniquein thatit was also concernedwith the
personal,ethical, and economic emancipationof Spanish women
as well as with their wartimeservices.Many womenwho had been
interested in the organizationand its publicationsas means of
developingtheir own consciousnessbegan to organizefor the war
effort. Women who had not worked outside their homes before
went to workin the factoriesandon the collectives.Whereverwork
was to be done, MujeresLibres set up divisionsto accomplishthe
job. In Madrid,the organizationhad transport,sanitation,manu-
14 Mujeres Libres, 2I semanas despues de la guerra [c. I2 December I936], 8.
15 Tierra y Libertad, 21 May I938, 4.
16 Victorino Feliz, Jovenes Campesinas de Accion Catdlica y Social (Madrid,
I933), 28-34; 'Seccion Feminina de Falange Espafiola Tradicionalista y de las
Jons, 1936', Agenda, I940, I8.
17 Mundo Obrero, October I936,4-5; Margarita Nelkin, 'Para una campafiera',
Mundo Obrero, I5 January I937, I; El Socialista, I8 March I927, 2.
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 SPANISH ANARCHISM AND WOMEN'S LIBERATION

facturing,metallurgical,and public service divisions, in addition

to mobilebrigadeswhich went wherevertherewas a jobto be done.
In Barcelonathey set up communalkitchens in all districts, or-
ganized the collectionof food and of medical supplies for nurses
and midwives.MujeresLibrestook a majorstep forwardin March
I937, when the Barcelonaand Madrid branchesstarted a trade
union for the I5,000 women working in food services and in
public transport.18One of its most importantand revolutionary
achievementswas the establishmentof child-care centres in the
factories and on the agricultural collectives. Although some
people in Spain may have seen these as a threat to the nuclear
family,anarchistshad no such fears,for they had long viewedlegal
marriageand the nuclearfamily as perniciousinstitutions.While
they acceptedthe notionof groupchild care,especiallyin wartime,
no men were employedin the nurseries,not even those too old or
too young to fight or to workin the factories.
In Spain, as in other nations at war, women were drawninto
new professionsand trades simply because there was a shortage
of manpower. Women of all political affiliationsacquired new
vocations,and this was especiallytrue of those who weretrainedin
the Mujeres Libres' technical and professionalschools. Special
technicalschoolsfor women were establishedeven in remoterural
areas. More important numericallywere the women who were
persuaded to work in the garment factories which had been
collectivizedand convertedto productionof uniformsand clothing
for the men at the front.
On the land, too, women found new occupations.Dr Amparo
Poch y Gascon, one of the foundersof MujeresLibres, travelled
to variouswomen'sagriculturalbrigadesto teachadvancedfirstaid
and to train more women as midwives. Informationabout activi-
ties in ruralareasis sparse,but we do knowthatin CiudadReal,the
members of Mujeres Libres virtually organized the Herencia
agriculturalcollective and started elementaryschools for adults
and children. In their technical and professionalschools they
trainedwomen in the most advancedpracticesof viticultureand
stock breeding.19They believed that the skills which they taught
would providewomen with the means for their own social libera-
tion as well as help the war effort. They hoped to change men's
18 Comaposada, 8.
19 Tierra y Libertad, I9 February I938, 3.

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 CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

attitudes to women and to persuadethem that, in order to fight

authoritarianism,they had to examine their own authorityover
their wives and daughters.20
FedericaMontseny, daughterof a famousanarchistfamily, was
interested in many of the issues raised by Mujeres Libres. As
Ministerof Healthand Social Service,she draftedan abortionlaw,
argued in favour of birth-controlinstruction,and fought for the
reform of the laws governing prostitution.Her first act in office
was to legalize abortion. This was followed by a similar law
enacted in the autonomousregion of Catalonia,authorizinglegal
abortionsin hospitals, clinics, and sanatoriaestablishedfor this
specificpurpose.Therapeutic,eugenic,and ethicalreasonswereall
acceptableas groundsfor abortion,providedthat the womanher-
self authorizedthe operation,that it took placenot morethanthree
monthsfollowingconception,and that no womancould havemore
than one abortiona year.21Montseny was also interestedin the
disseminationof birth-controlinformation,a concern shared by
Mujeres Libres, which gave instruction in birth control to the
women with whom they worked.22
Both the MujeresLibresand FedericaMontsenytook up strong
positionson the questionof prostitutionand on the government's
policy towardsits existence and control. Many reformerswanted
prostitutionabolished,as it had been in 1935,with severepenalties
against prostitutes who continued to practise their profession.
Othersfavouredlegalizationand regulationof prostitutionso that
steps could be taken to prevent the spread of venereal disease.
Montseny, who viewed the issue as an integral part of social
welfareand public health, believed that it could not be ended by
decree: 'Prostitutionpresentsa problemof moral, economic,and
social characterwhich cannot be resolvedjuridically.Prostitution
will be abolished when sexual relations are liberalized; when
Christianandbourgeoismoralityis transformed;whenwomenhave
professionsand social opportunitiesto secure their livelihoodand
that of their children; when society is establishedin such a way
that no one remainsat the margin;when society can be organized
to secure life and rights for all human beings.'23
20 Ibid., 21 May I938, 4; 30 July 1938, 4.
21 Solidaridad Obrera (Barcelona), 2I April 1937, 2.
22 Tierra y Libertad, 24 December I938, 3.
23 Federica Montseny, Mi experiencia en el Ministerio de Sanidady Assistencia
Social, I937, 27.
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 SPANISH ANARCHISM AND WOMEN'S LIBERATION

Montseny established refuges open to all women, including

prostitutesand unwed mothersin need of treatment,as partof the
drive to introduce therapeuticmedicine and to establish public
health services. Mujeres Libres ran training courses to educate
women who might otherwise. become prostitutes. Mercedes
Comaposada,editorof MujeresLibres,arguedthat one of the tasks
of the revolutionwas to change men and women, and that it was
impossible for men to transformtheir lives while they kept a
portionof mankindin prostitution.'As long as any womanis kept
as an object and is prevented from developing her personality,
prostitution,in fact, continuesto exist.'24

Despite these efforts and aspirations,the traditionalrelationship

between men and women was carried over into revolutionary
Spain. In the unions and collectives dominated by the CNT,
womencontinuedto performthe samework- homemaking,baking,
and washing- that they had performedbefore the revolution.A
'MujeresLibres Column' was organizedto wash and iron at the
front; neither men nor women raised the issue of sharing un-
pleasanttasks.No groupexceptthe MujeresLibreseverchallenged
the old division of labour and role assignment.And, except by
example, even Mujeres Libres never assertedthat the creativity,
underdevelopedtalents, and leadershipabilities of women might
be useful to the revolution.
The question remains why the anarchistsdid not pay more
attentionto the special needs of women. The CNT found many
men who were illiterateand untrained,and tried to educatethem
and elevate them to positions of responsibility;yet they seldom
did the samefor women. One answeris that the womenthemselves
failed to confront the issue of the authoritarianismof their own
husbands and fathers, to make it a subject of debate. Mujeres
Libres trainedwomen and tried to integratethem into the social
services,but did not challengethe idea of masculinesupremacyand
authorityin all fields. Occasionally,in an anarchistpaper,an angry
letter or article might appear which argued that women were
essentiallyas oppressedsince the establishmentof the Republic
and since the outbreakof the Civil Waras before.25But these were
exceptionsto the generalpattern.
24 Tierra y Libertad, 2 January I937, 8.
25 Ibid., 26 December I936, 8.

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 CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Convinced by Popular Front ideology that no real change in

theirpersonallives was possiblebeforevictorywas won in the war,
women anarchists organized themselves to help the war effort
and subordinatedtheir own demandsto the task of winning the
war. Anarchists as a body did not believe that the social and
economicrevolutionhad to be postponeduntil militaryvictorywas
achieved. In fact, they believed exactly the opposite, which was a
major source of their conflict with the Communist Party. Yet
womenanarchistswere convincedthat theirliberationhad to await
the end of the war; that, while the authorityof the capitalistover
his worker,and of the landlordoverhis tenantcouldbe challenged,
that of man over woman could not be attackeduntil militaryvic-
tory was assured.Most were persuadedor convincedthemselves
that afterthe war was over, afterthe revolutionhad triumphed,at
some time in the future, without a struggle,the lives of Spanish
women would be transformed.

Becauseof the interruptionin postal services,contributorsto

this issue were unable to send their correctedproofs to the
Journal. The editors regret the consequent omission of any
changesthey mayhavewishedto make.

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