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ABSTRACT
This article aims to contribute to a better knowledge of historical feminism in Spain based on and in dialogue with the wealth of research on the subject by Spanish historiography in recent decades. Although the social nature of Spanish feminism and its articulation around notions of sexual difference has been pinpointed, a more profound reflection on the social nature of feminism, as well as its effects on the shaping of feminism as a social reform movement, is needed. For that purpose, this article pays attention to the epistemological framework of social duties (and rights) which became widespread in the early twentieth century. The main working hypothesis is that these notions of sexual difference were not static and that, from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards, they were given another meaning in light of the emergence of “the social” as a result of the criticism of classical liberalism’s assumptions and explanations of human nature. Sexual difference was reframed through the impact of the new ideas about society, which facilitated proposals for women’s public intervention in social improvement and for reshaping marriage and the domestic sphere.
Disclosure statement
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Notes
1. Pestana (Citation1904, 52). Own translation. All primary source quotes have been translated by the author. This article has been written thanks to the Grant PGC2018–097232-B-C22, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe.”
2. The Bourbon Restoration refers to a long period of institutional stability (1876–1923), achieved through a political system of constitutional monarchy, controlled by the figure of the monarch and by the two liberal parties that took turns in power supported by local socio-economic elites (caciques or local barons).
3. See many of the chapters dedicated to the different feminisms in the tribute to Mary Nash, in Ortega, Aguado y Hernández (2019).
4. Already in the 1840s, if we follow Mónica Burguera’s research (Citation2012), social reform had appeared in the frame of respectable liberalism. However, it was only at the end of the century that it again contributed to breathe new content into the term feminism, which was accurately coined by Hubertine Auclert.
5. Cabrera (Citation2019, 3) states that, along with the individual, the concept of society has structured the way one conceives of oneself, acts, and interacts in contemporary societies. Aside from influencing facts such as the creation of socialist parties, the introduction of the welfare state, and the onset of the Russian and Chinese revolutions, it also underpins the emergence of class identities and the notions of rights and social citizenship, while paving the way for the emergence of the social sciences. See also Freeden (Citation2008, 8–9).
6. María Vinyals Ferrés, Marchioness of Ayerbe after her marriage to Juan Nepomuceno Jordán, Marquis of Ayerbe, signed both names until 1910, when she married the Cuban doctor Enrique Lluria. From then on, she signed her articles as María de Lluria. See Ezama (Citation2014) and Marco (Citation2017). About the Ibero-American Centre (Centro Iberoamericano), Ezama (Citation2017). When citing the articles and conferences, the name she chose to sign them under has been respected at all times. Therefore, the entries Marquesa de Ayerbe and De Lluria correspond to the same person.
7. As Capellán (Citation2006) has pointed out, the social ideology of Krausism – Institutionalism was based on organicism, evolutionism, and French solidarism, along with the approaches of German socialism and the new British liberalism. The concept of social organism was crucial for Piernas Hurtado, Azcárate, Giner, Sales, and Ferré, among others (Suárez Cortina Citation2011, 39).
8. Alice Pestana (Santarém, 1860–Madrid, 1929), was a Portuguese feminist and teacher at the ILE, who reported the successes and organizational advances of international feminism in the Spanish liberal – intellectual media. About the ILE and the Residence of Young Ladies (Residencia de Señoritas), see Vázquez (Citation2012).
9. The welcome on the front cover of El Mundo Femenino, ANME’s journal, announced its intention to address matters of a “moral and charitable nature, about hygiene, and so forth, which can benefit society and the homeland, from which women are almost always excluded, though their skill at resolving such problems is acknowledged time and time again.” They petitioned for greater female collaboration on behalf of Spain, especially for the weak, the oppressed, and the cheated.
10. As Riley concluded (1988, 51) for British feminists, “‘women’ became both agents and objects of reform in unprecedented ways with the ascent of the ‘social’.”
11. Scott’s (Citation1996, 94–98) alludes to the case of Hubertine Auclert, who openly stated that the non-concession of the women’s vote was linked to the depoliticization of the social question. Hence the demand to succeed in politicizing the social or in having political representation.
12. Beatriz Galindo was the pseudonym of Isabel Oyarzábal (Malaga, 1884–Mexico Federal District, 1974). A member of the ANME and the Lyceum Club, she collaborated on the creation and management of the journal Mundo Femenino, an ANME publication. See Quiles (2013). When citing the articles and conferences, the name she chose to sign them under has been respected at all times. Therefore, the entries Galindo, Oyarzábal, and Palencia correspond to the same author. The positions of the daily newspaper El Sol as a medium for the “new liberalism,” in Lario (Citation2008).
13. The programme of the ANME was also presented in La Escuela Moderna, 1-1-1919, 72–86 (36 points); in La Acción, 31-12-18, pp. 1 and 2; El Fígaro, 1-1-19, p. 4; El Globo, 7-1-19, p. 3; 27-1-19, p. 2.
14. Margarita Nelken and María Vinyals (de Lluria) also intervened in this discussion on modernizing centres of beneficence, which was much needed, and promoting women’s participation in their leadership and management. All three women had been involved in socialism since the 1920s.
15. The “maternalization of women,” in Nari (Citation2004). About maternalist feminism, see Koven and Michel (Citation1990); Bock and Thane (eds.) (Citation1991); Van der Klein, Plant, Sanders and Weintrob (eds.) (Citation2012). A novel view in Barton (Citation2020), who addresses the concept of reproductive citizenry to analyze migratory policy and its implementation by various social actors in early twentieth-century France.
16. Álvarez, Consuelo (Violeta), “Entrega de premios. Comité Femenino de Higiene Popular,” El País, Madrid, 27-2-1911, p. 1. From 1916, doctor and obstetrician Concepción Alexandre presided over the committee, including a section for the circulation of hygiene precepts aimed at women in the journal Medicina Social Española.
17. In this regard, the articles by María Vinyals in El Fígaro, in 1918, and those by Oyarzábal: “Curso elemental de Maternología y Puericultura” (El Sol, 16-3-1918, p. 2) and “El cuidado de los niños. Las conferencias organizadas por la Escuela de Maternología” (El Sol, 20-2-1918, p. 2). In addition to conferences and essays such as those by Isabel Oyarzábal (El alma del niño. Ensayos de psicología infantil, 1921) and Margarita Nelken (Maternología y Puericultura, Citation1926), encouragement and support were given to circulating the work of projects by doctors like Francos Rodríguez, who was Mayor of Madrid and the Minister for Public Education, in 1917.
18. “Neither should we forget that we have the second highest mortality rate in Europe, which reduces the advantages and sadly compensates our superiority in births and marriages.” She added that “that prodigious mortality mainly hits children, 20% succumbing before their first birthday and 40% before their sixth; that is horrendous, truly horrendous, and must be combated at all costs, with all the means available and even with those that are not” (Vinyals 1905, 10).
19. In this issue, María Goyri advertised the female culture centres promoted by the Unión. Spencer’s quote, taken from La ciencia social. Preparación por la Psicología: “Women are a social element of extraordinary social importance because they create and modify the aspirations and feelings of men, not only when educating them in their early years by moulding their hearts and brains, but by consciously or unconsciously influencing all the public acts of men.”