Blue Angels

Female Fascist Resisters, Spies and Intelligence Officials in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–9

Bibliographic Data

ID10073939
AuthorsSofía Rodríguez López (0000-0002-3937-7564, independent scholar), Antonio Cazorla Sánchez (Trent University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume53
Issue4
Pages692-713
Publication date2016-12-22
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022009416668039
OpenAlexW2579927651
LanguageEN
Citations received6

Pro-Franco or, if the reader prefers, Nationalist women, were supposed to be the antithesis of the only women who, it has been assumed, were really active in the war: Republican women. Pro-Franco women are assumed to have supported both established social and gender traditions, having collaborated in the war effort without transgressing these roles. This article argues that historians have underestimated pro-Franco women’s participation in anti-Republican underground activities, in part because they have tended to make a false distinction between a ‘real’ Fifth Column, where men were clearly predominant, and ‘merely’ supportive roles, where women were crucial and often in the majority. On the contrary, this article argues that Nationalist women played a key, active role in intelligence activities in the Fifth Column, in acts of resistance against the Republic and also when posted abroad conducting espionage activities, or working in information gathering behind Francoist lines

Antithesis · Art · Espionage · Literature · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Gender Studies · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Spanish History and Politics · Religious Studies

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