Mujeres Libres Invincible de Los Peligros de Angustia

Mujeres Libres Invincible de Los Peligros de Angustia

Walking through the streets of Madrid, I am constantly approached by local Españoles searching for their way through the city streets — perhaps I have a welcoming ambience about me, others say I have the face of a Spaniard. Take the other day for instance; I was exiting the metro when an elderly woman approached me, trying to find her way to Principe Pio. As she stood standing directly in front of the sign that indicated the train to take was on line six, platform one, she turned to me and asked “Which train will take me to Principe Pio?” Just then it hit me… this exact situation has occurred multiple times since being in Madrid — perhaps these women cannot read, or perhaps they have relied on their husbands or sons for years to take them into the city streets! It is not because they are simple-minded; it is likely their inability to read or find solutions for themselves is due to the years of repression and the lack of formal education among women of that generation. It has only been since 1985, when an estimated 91 percent of females were finally attending secondary schools and what’s more, it has merely just been in the last 35 years, that Spanish women have had true emancipation.

In the early twentieth century, Spanish women organized to make their voices heard by using anarchism as their vehicle. Several women's leagues were developed including the anarcha-feminist group, the Mujeres Libres. The Mujeres Libres fought long and hard not just for women's emancipation and to fight sexism, but also to establish themselves as an independent anarchist organization. Were they successful in their efforts? Have the conditions for women changed in modernized Spain, or are women today facing similar struggles in the modernized world?

Prior to the Spanish Civil War, society in Spain was personified by a male-defined social order, characterized by male supremacy and female subordination....