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Señoritas in Blue
The Making of a Female Political Elite in Franco’s Spain
THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF THE SECCIÓN FEMENINA DE LA FALANGE (1936–1977)
In
the Series
Studies in Spanish History
| Inbal Offer |
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| Inbal Ofer is Assistant Professor of Modern European History, the Open University of Israel, specializing in 20th century Spain and gender and women's history within Right Wing movements and authoritarian regimes. She has published articles relating to the history of women under the Franco regime in several leading journals in the US, UK and Spain. Her work on the Women Section of the Spanish Fascist Party received the II Premio Internacional José Antonio Maravall de Historia Política, from Departamento de Historia del Pensamiento y de los Movimientos Sociales y Políticos, Universidad Complutense, Spain. |
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This book explores the role played by the Female Section of the
Spanish Fascist Party (Sección Femenina de la Falange –
SF) in promoting women’s political and professional rights
within the authoritarian Franco regime in Spain. While acknowledging
the organizational and financial ties, as well as the great ideological
affinity between the SF and the regime, Inbal Ofer demonstrates
how the SF’s national leadership promoted an autonomous social
and political agenda. Despite the need to constantly maneuver between
the cultural and legal dictates of Francoist society, the unique
activities and personal experiences of SF members at the heart of
political power became a model for an array of policies and reforms
that greatly improved the lives of Spanish women.
From a unique gender perspective the topic of the Sección
Femenina de la Falange contributes to the debate on the nature of
authoritarian regimes by reflecting on issues of policy formation
and implementation; mass mobilization; and the role of coercion
alongside the creation of a “culture of consent”. In
exchange for a long-term commitment to the survival of the regime,
both the Catholic Church and the Spanish Falange gained considerable
administrative power and a measure of freedom to act on political
and social matters. As explained, the promotion of women’s
legal and political equality (reflected in the struggle to amend
the Civil Code and ratify the Law for Political and Professional
Rights) is a good example of the way organs within the “regime”
made use of their position in order to legitimize non-consensual
forms of activism. The SF efforts to increase the number of gainfully
employed women and improve their working-conditions is an example
of the unexpected uses made by agents of the “regime”
of the freedom of action accorded them in the public arena.
Inbal Ofer raises questions regarding the nature of women’s
political activism and capacity for autonomous action within authoritarian
regimes, setting out the debate on the nature of feminism and its
relation to female activism and the promotion of women as a collective.
More specifically she engages with those works that critically evaluate
women’s public contribution within Catholic and / or nationalist
settings, and is required reading for interested in the history
of modern Europe.
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Series Editor’s Preface
Acknowledgements
Cover Illustrations in Formal Setting
Introduction
Prologue – The Birth of a Female Political Elite
1 Nurses and Students: Education, Professional
Training
and the Civil War Experience in the Shaping of Two
Generations of Leadership
2 The National Syndicalist Woman: The Genealogy
of a
Gender Identity
3 Bridging the Gap between Elitist and Mass
Politics:
Gender Legislation of the Sección Femenina de la FET
4 Am I that Body? Sección Femenina
de la FET and the Struggle for the Institution of Physical
Education and Competitive Sports for Women
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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“In reassessing the Sección Feminina, Inbal Ofer
has drawn upon the new approaches to gender studies …
She contends that the SF did not blindly follow the dictates
of a regime based on the exclusion of women from the public
sphere, but eventually developed and defended its own, autonomous
social and political agenda … Señoritas in
Blue therefore marks a radical rupture with the dominant
narrative on the Franco dictatorship. What Edward Malefakis
has dubbed the ‘essentialist’ vision of the regime
maintains that Franco controlled all aspects of civil, economic
and political life and that all of the regime groups were
prepared to renounce their ideological and religious goals
in exchange for the exercise of administrative power. By contrast,
Ofer argues that each group possessed considerable autonomy
and defended its own ideological and collective interests
in the negotiations that characterized all policy-making under
the dictatorship. Only in this way was the SF able to increase
substantially the number of women in the labour market and
to better their working conditions.” Nigel Townson,
General Editor of Sussex Studies in Spanish History
“A historian specializing in 20th-century Spain and
gender, Ofer argues that the organization she examines here,
despite its deep financial and ideological ties with the fascist
dictatorship, used its formal political connection to promote
an autonomous social and political agenda that greatly improved
the lives of Francoist women. She discusses education, professional
training, and the Civil War experience; the genealogy of a
gender identity; gender legislation; and the struggle for
the Institute of Physical Education and Competitive sports
for Women.” Reference & Research Book News
“At least two aspects of Ofer’s book are outstanding.
The first achievement of this manuscript is the in-depth study
of the SF leadership. Particularly insightful are Ofer’s
remarks on class issues regarding the SF hierarchy (and some
of the gender policies promoted by the SF). For instance,
Ofer convincingly shows that although SF rhetoric attempted
to reach all social classes, only middle-class women could
in fact become SF national leaders. The position of SF national
cadre was a full-time and demanding job with long working
hours, salaries of SF national leaders were very low, and
SF leaders from Provincial Delegate upwards had to be single
or childless widows. Thus, without a bread-winner husband
‘only a woman who had an independent income or the support
of her family could afford to continue working for the SF’
(p. 42). Also perspicacious is the research into the commonalities
and differences between the two generations of SF leaders.
The second achievement is the brilliant analysis of
women’s physical education and sports heralded by the
SF since its origins. In supporting women’s sports,
the SF encountered an enormous (and at times insurmountable)
resistance from the Catholic Church hierarchy and most sectors
of Spanish society.
Because of its brilliant achievements and in spite
of its less convincing aspects, this book is a remarkable
manuscript. It is of interest not only to specialists in gender
politics in Spain, but also to any scholar interested in authoritarian
regimes, political organisations and political elites.”
South European Society and Politics
Reviewed in Spanish by the
Bulletin of Spanish Studies
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Publication Details
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Hardback ISBN: |
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978-1-84519-314-0 |
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Paperback ISBN: |
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978-1-84519-411-6 |
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Page Extent / Format: |
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192 pp. / 229 x 152 mm |
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Release Date: |
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February 2009; paperback,
July 2010 |
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Illustrated: |
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No |
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Hardback Price: |
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£40.00 / $65.00 |
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Paperback Price: |
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£18.95 / $32.50 |
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