Situation_of_Women_in_Spain_During_Franco's_Regime_and_After.

‘Spanish women - how their position within the society has changed since Franco’s death’ After death of General Francisco Franco Bahamonde on 20 November 1975, Spain started its ‘transition’ towards democracy. This transformation, sometimes defined as ‘the metamorphosis of Francoism: the gradual transformation of an authoritarian regime into a parliamentary democracy’ (Graham, 1984:8), was followed by the promulgation of the constitution in December 1978 which brought many changes in politics, economics and on social grounds. Talking about the society, the Spanish women, who during the Franco’s regime were treated as second class citizens, got their political rights back in 1977. Before that time the organization responsible for indoctrination and formation of ‘new Spanish women’ was known as ‘Seccion Femina’ (under Franco) where we could find this kind of regulations: ‘Throughout her life, the mission of women is to serve. When God made the first man, he thought "It is not good for man to be lonely". And he made woman to help and accompany man, and to serve as a mother. God's first idea was "man". He thought of woman afterwards, as a necessary complement, as something useful’ or ‘When he arrives home from work, have a delicious meal ready for him...Take off his shoes. Speak in a low, relaxed and pleasant tone. Get ready - touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair. Make yourself look a little more interesting for him. He may need a bit of cheer after his hard day at work, and your job is to give it to him. Looking after his needs will provide you with immense personal satisfaction’ (www. family.jrank.org). The idea that ‘women should be confined to their homes’ (which continued after Moorish Conquest) was finally brought down (Moxon-Bowne, 1989:67). However, it is worth underlining that even though this ‘idea’ was no longer apparent, there are still families (mostly in rural Spain) who follow the tradition that women should take care of a house and family. The main focus of this essay will be to bring closer the situation of Spanish women, which has changed since 1975. The significance of the changes, both on political and social grounds, has brought women to a ‘nearly’ equal position with man. It is only a ‘nearly’ equal because there are still some points that prove the above statement; as the example of an average salary for women which is only 75 to 80 percent that of man (www. family.jrank.org). Obviously, this also depends on the sector in which they partake. While talking about women in employment sector, it is perhaps useful to recall that when Spain was under Franco’s regime, women were discouraged from taking up employment. This is mainly because of the law known as ‘permiso marital’ (a marital permission) which explained that women had to ask their husband for permission to obtain a job, start a business, open a bank account or even travel (www. family.jrank.org); this law was abolished in 1975. Although, these rules were in force until 1977, women were still expected to concentrate on domestic activities. There are still some Spaniards (and other nationalities) who agree that women should have a right to undertake jobs outside the home but they still expect them to take care of children and house works. One more thing worth underlining is that together with the end of dictatorship came time for renaissance in women’s literature in Spain. Spain democracy led to the big breakthrough in women’s narrative along with: Rosa Montero, Lourdes Ortiz, Soledad Púertolas, Marina Mayoral, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Carme Riera, and Esther Tusquets. The fact that women started taking part in the labour market has also changed the concept of a relationship between man and woman as a couple and as a family. Furthermore, the wish for individual independence and search for personal happiness leads to achievement of democratic relationships. Both man and women agree that this brought more autonomy into their relationships and bigger number of couples postpone the formalization of their relationships through the marriage (or by having children), as this would increase responsibilities for the both sides. This, in fact, delays the age in which they decide to set up family or have children (www.country-studies.com). This kind of relationship would not be allowed in Franco’s Spain, as marriage (at that time) had to be canonical; therefore, it had to be under Roman Catholic regulations even if only one of the partners was Catholic. Since the prohibition of the divorce, a marriage could only be annulled and this was mainly available to the wealthy people. The results of the survey in 1975 showed, that 71 percent of Spaniards were in favour of legalizing divorce which actually took place in 1981. Nowadays, church does not have this power and no one can force people into the marriage if they want to live together. Modern families diverse from the traditional families; single parents or same - sex couples bringing up adopted children are not seen as something unacceptable. In fact, Spain is one of the few countries which have legally accepted the same - sex marriages (in 2005) (www.homesworldwide.co.uk). This social reform, strongly fought against by the clergy, shows how enormous changes have taken place in Spain. As mentioned before, single parents, or the one we are more interested in single mothers, are not left for starvation as it could take place during Franco’s regime. Single mothers did not lead an easy life. To survive they sometimes had to go as far as prostitution to provide their children with the basic necessities needed to survive. It is estimated that around 75 percent of women were undertaking prostitution due to economic desperation, while another 15 percent had been abandoned by the fathers of their children. The fact that prostitution was legal in Spain until mid-1950 is kind of eccentric for such a Catholic country (Moxon-Brown, 1989). Nowadays, single mothers do not have this problem, at least not on such a big scale. The matter of single mother brings to our mind another very important issue: abortion, which was legalized in 1985. This legislation raised an objection in the clergy and some doctors refuse to perform abortion even if it’s legal. That is why many Spanish women travel abroad to receive this procedure. The rate of Spanish abortion is very low and comes to less than a third of that in the UK (Ross, 2002). Through all of these women’s problems we should probably mention the matter of ‘women abuse’. In 1987 a National Women’s Bureau was set up in order to establish centres for physically abused wives, around 60 of whom die in Spain each year. This has also brought to live women’s Equal Opportunities Plans, which is said to be brought only for improvement of the government’s image among women (Ross, 2002). The last aspect that needs to be mentioned is women in politics. For many years women struggled to be accepted as equals in politics. To begin with the fact that they got back their political rights in 1977 which is 41 years since they voted last time in 1936. As mentioned before, women were expected to focus on domestic jobs and bringing up children, simply leaving politics for men. This has changed and now Spanish Parliament has more female than male for the first time. This progress is owed to Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has appointed nine women and eight men to his cabinet. This decision was summarised as ‘crucial, and may help to bring the country into the 21st century’ Nowadays, half the members of Zapatero’s Cabinet and half the Socialist candidates who were running for legislative seats in elections in March 2009 were women (www.homesworldwide.co.uk). Moving towards the conclusion we could assume from the above that the situation of Spanish women during Franco’s dictatorship was very problematic. The main two examples of this difficult situation might be given: women were deprived of the ability to make decisions for themselves in everyday life situations; and, they did not have equal opportunities for employment. Fortunately, it all has changed since Spain is a democratic country. In my final conclusion I would like to mention a very interesting research that was done with the help of Spanish women (age between 40 to 50 years old). They were asked to give their opinion about Franco. These facts lead us to the following conclusion: ‘12.5% responded that Franco was a very bad person; 37.5% responded that he was a bad person; 25% responded that he was a good person; and 25% had no opinion’ (www.unt.edu). The answers depended on women economical position during Franco’s Regime, educational status and how able they were to provide their families. However the fact that 25% responded that Franco was a good person makes us think. Bibliography: Graham, R. (1984) Spain. Change of a nation. London: Michael Joseph Ltd Heywood, P. (1999) Politics and Policy in Democratic Spain. London: Frank Cass Publishers Heywood, P. (1995) The Government and Politics of Spain. London: Macmillan Press Ltd Moxon-Browne, E. (1989) Political Change in Spain. London: Routledge Ross, C. (2002) Contemporary Spain. London: Arnold UNT (2005) ‘The Opinions of Spanish Women Concerning the Dictatorship of Francisco Franco [online]’ Available at: http://www.unt.edu/honors/eaglefeather/2005_Issue/Davis4.shtml [Accessed 20th March 2009] Reyes J. R. (2009) ‘Spain - The Changing Attitudes In Spain [online]’ Available at: http://family.jrank.org/pages/1622/Spain-Changing-Attitudes-in-Spain.html [Accessed 20th March 2009] Homes worldwide (2009) ‘Women dominate politics [online]’ Available at: http://www.homesworldwide.co.uk/europe/spain/news/articles/women_dominate_politics_in_spain'news_id=0067779 [Accessed 16th April 2009] Country Studies ‘Spain. The Franco Years [online]’ Available at: http://www.country-studies.com/spain/the-franco-years.html [Accessed 16th April 2009]