Women in the republican anticlerical ideology. A study from the Malaga press

Abstract

The process of social laicization undergone in Spain since the early twentieth century led to active political anticlericalism that meant a change in a broad sector of the population. Although Spanish republicanism has traditionally been anticlerical, as the third decade approached, its postulates would be increasingly vehement. The objective we want to achieve with this piece of research is to make women visible during this historical period and under this concrete ideology, in order to know the position of anticlericalism regarding the incipient feminism and the beginning of the departure of women from the family. To this end, we have used a qualitative methodology that has allowed us to analyze exhaustively the republican press in Malaga as the main source of study. This source will provide us with important information to understand both the situation of women and men, since men will have their misgivings and fears about the new role that women are acquiring. A woman traditionally silenced, with no options beyond the private sphere of home, but who also in this first third of the century will undergo an awakening and a beginning of the struggle for their rights, as we will see, and not just taking into account their imposed duties according to the "natural law" that is proper to them. An anticlerical republicanism that will have a clear position on the role and function of women social beings.

The process of social laicization undergone in Spain since the early twentieth century led to active political anticlericalism that meant a change in a broad sector of the population. Although Spanish republicanism has traditionally been anticlerical, as the third decade approached, its postulates would be increasingly vehement. The objective we want to achieve with this piece of research is to make women visible during this historical period and under this concrete ideology, in order to know the position of anticlericalism regarding the incipient feminism and the beginning of the departure of women from the family. To this end, we have used a qualitative methodology that has allowed us to analyze exhaustively the republican press in Malaga as the main source of study. This source will provide us with important information to understand both the situation of women and men, since men will have their misgivings and fears about the new role that women are acquiring. A woman traditionally silenced, with no options beyond the private sphere of home, but who also in this first third of the century will undergo an awakening and a beginning of the struggle for their rights, as we will see, and not just taking into account their imposed duties according to the "natural law" that is proper to them. An anticlerical republicanism that will have a clear position on the role and function of women social beings.