«In order to influence the life of the future State». Falangist discourse –and practice– on woman’s role and femininity, 1933-1945

Abstract

The study of the construction of gender must take into account its historicity. Starting from this theoretical base this text analyzes falangist discourse on femininity through its first twelve years and three different political periods: Republic, civil war and Franco’s dictatorship. Therefore central attention is paid to the lived effects of the Spanish fascist party political language among the members of its Women’s Section and their practical activity, all of which arises serious doubts about an explaining model centered on submission. Not without reason, women of the fascist Party would try to reinterpretate and renegotiate falangist discourse on femininity, adapting it not only to a changing political context, but also to the arising critics —not least of all from the religious flank— from certain conservatives sectors in Franco’s Spain. All this with falangist ideology as a backdrop which, in spite of all coincidences also at a gender level with those sectors, highlights the specificity of its own fascist discourse.