Spanish feminists and the 8th IWSA Congress (1920)

Abstract

In December 1919, the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) officially announced that their 8th Congress would be held in Madrid. Its celebration
was however finally frustrated due to internal disputes within the Spanish feminist associations and pressures from the most conservative sectors of society. The confrontation between the National Association of Spanish Women (ANME) and the Union of Spanish Women (UME), as well as the opposition of the Women Catholic Action (ACM), eventually determined that the Congress would be celebrated in Geneva in June 1920. Important representatives of Spanish feminism attended the conference, such as María Lejárraga, Isabel Oyarzábal or Magda Donato. They sent their chronicles out to diverse Spanish newspapers, informing about the agreements reached there and their impressions about the event. We succinctly collect the most outstanding aspects of these chronicles, which reveal an evident modernity.