Nationalism and feminism

The categories of nationalism and feminism are a particularly interesting combination for approaching the topic of the Women’s Section of the Spanish Falange. It was in their way of interpreting their own nationalism that members of the Secci6n Femenina defined their role as women. That is, their role as Falangist women. The Secci6n Femenina, or Women’s Section, was founded as a small auxiliary-a year after the founding of the Falangist party-in 1934. With the outbreak of the civil war in Spain it expanded as a service organisation, and its adherents numbered more than half a million by the war’s end in 1939. Its membership far surpassed the male membership of the Falange, and its founder, Pilar Primo de Rivera, long survived her brother, Josh: Antonio, the founder of the Falange. Nevertheless, Pilar remained absolutely loyal to the ideology and principles of Jo& Antonio and the Seccibn Femenina, laboring for nearly half a century to realise his project for the Falange. It is in analysing the concept that these women held of themselves and their Falangist mission that the categories of nationalism and feminism are most productive. The Falange exhibited those traits characteristic of fascist or protofascist parties of the 30s: hero worship of a charismatic leader, a call for a corporate state to replace parliamentary democracy, martial values and uniformed paramilitary units, the raised fist salute and a clear strain of misogyny. Reminiscent of Mussolini’s blueprint for society, Falangism called for the reconstruction of Spain. The family, the municipality and the syndicate would be the building blocks of a revolutionary organic society-one with imperial aims. The Falange called for a revolution, but one that would revive Spanish traditional values. It is its particular emphasis on Catholicism that most distinguishes the Falange. Like Italian fascists, Falangists looked back to an imperial past. But Spain’s era of greatness was also its most Catholic. ‘The most important glories of Spain are united always with the glories of the Church, and our culture and our expansion has always had a Catholic orientation”, goes an official Secci6n Femenina account. In order to recover that impetus, that will-to-empire, it was first necessary to reestablish traditional Catholic values. The anarchy of the Second Republic had revealed the bankruptcy of Modernism and its offshoots: liberalism, materialism, communism, atheism-and feminism. Catholicism was thus essential to the Falangist program. Number 25 of the doctrinal principles of the party mandated the incorporation of Catholicism into the ‘national reconstruction’ because of its ‘glorious tradition’ and its ‘predominance’ in Spain.2 Reestablishing Catholic values and the Catholic spirit would reorient

Art · Feminism · HERO · Ideology · Literature · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Gender Studies · History of Education in Spain · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Spanish Culture and Identity · Spanish History and Politics · Religious Studies

• Atlantic Threads

  Paula A De La Cruz-Fernández•2013

  Add to list

• Gendering Spanish Democracy

  Monica Threlfall, Christine Cousins et al.•Gendering Spanish Democracy•2004

  Add to list

• Emociones para una identidad compartida. La Sección Femenina de FET-Jons entre la guerra y los años grises

  Open Access•Bibiana Barrera•Historia y Política Ideas…•2019

  Add to list

• Gender, the extreme right and Flemish nationalist women's organisations in interwar Belgium

  Open Access•Maarten Van Ginderachter•Nations and Nationalism•2005

  Add to list