Age and Feminist Activism: The Feminist Protest Within the Catholic Church in Franco's Spain

Abstract

This article examines the existence of a positive relationship between age and feminist activism by analyzing the empirical case of feminist protest within the Catholic Church in Franco's Spain. Drawing on published documents and 15 interviews, this study shows that middle-aged and elderly women have more experience and resources for participating in feminist movements than younger women. The study also identifies the circumstances where the positive relationship between age and feminist activism is more robust. The findings contradict assumptions of mainstream social movement scholarship and part of the scholarship in life-course studies and politics: that as individuals progress into middle- or old-age, many of them tend to become more committed to the established political and social order and thus less interested in (and less active in) social movements that pursue political and social change.

Keywords::

• Social movements
• age
• gender
• Catholic Church
• Spain
• Franco

Acknowledgements

For priceless comments on earlier versions, I owe thanks to the editor and two anonymous reviewers of Social Movement Studies, Rosemary Barberet, Kerman Calvo, Juan Fernández, Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Roberto Garvía, Peter Stamatov, and attentive audiences of conferences and seminars where I presented previous drafts. This article is dedicated to my academic mentor Víctor Pérez Díaz as a sign of deep gratitude for his continuous intellectual encouragement and support.

Notes

^1. However, the link between age and aims of the mobilization is not absolute. As current culture wars in the United States illustrate, certain issues, such as reproductive rights, may propel people of all ages into mobilization, and not only, or not mainly, people of fertile age.

^2. Two other leaders of Women's Catholic Action declined to be interviewed.

^3. In this article, all translations from Spanish to English are by the author.

^4. At that time in Spain, married women needed their husbands’ permission for many actions including opening a bank account, obtaining a passport and a driving license, traveling abroad, signing a labor contract, or engaging in trade.

^5. The ‘Maldonado conversations’ were meetings regularly held in Madrid in a Jesuit center on Maldonado Street from the 1950s onwards.

^6. For instance, the National Council of Women's Catholic Action established in 1952 included 21 single women, five married women, and three widows (Women's Catholic Action, 1952). The National Council of Women's Catholic Action established in 1960 was composed by 26 single women, 10 married women, and 5 widows (Women's Catholic Action, 1960).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [grant number HA2012-32539].

Notes on contributors

Celia Valiente

Celia Valiente is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Social Sciences of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain. Her main research interests are women's movement and gender-equality policies in Spain from a comparative perspective. She has published articles in Gender & Society, Politics & Gender, European Journal of Political Research, and South European Society & Politics.