A Response to Repression of Francoism: The Womyn's Anarchist Movement in Spain

Abstract

As I studied in Spain for about a year, I met a lot of interesting womyn. These womyn shared with me the stories of their lives during the reign of General Francisco Franco (1939-1975). My personal experiences with these womyn led me to choose a topic addressing the womyn's struggle under Franco's regime. My own feminist perspective led me to examine more closely their efforts. That feminist bias will find its way into this thesis. The womyn's struggle led with and within the anarchist movement particularly fascinated me. This interested me because the anarchism that I had studied previously about was the radical, violent model. I wondered why womyn would choose this avenue to relieve their situation. This thesis attempts to explore why womyn associated with the anarchist movement and how womyn in anarchist groups fought their oppressor.