True Catholic Womanhood: Gender Ideology in Franco's Spain - Tapa dura

"This study not only offers us a new perspective on the Franco Regime but also constitutes a major contribution to scholarship on gender and authoritarianism and on gender and consumer culture."--Journal of Modern History "The broadest and most important book in English on women under Franco.... There is nothing comparable."--Pamela Radcliff, University of San Diego

Women faced conflicting demands under Franco's programme of National Catholicism. State-sponsored economic development created a modern consumer society, yet women were expected to remain passive and private, conforming to 16th-century ideals of Catholic womanhood. Using diverse sources - including oral interviews, magazine advertisements and university archives, Morcillo explores the contradictions between modernization and traditional gender expectations. Using a textured history of major women's organizations from the 1940s through the 1960s it demonstrates that Spanish women successfully negotiated these contradictions, creating a vibrant and meaningful public space for women's social activism. Their very spirituality protected these women from state retribution in their search for "true Catholic womanhood". "True Catholic Womanhood" adds new insights into the gender dynamics of authoritarian states. It should be useful reading for all those interested in modern Spain, Catholicism, European women's history and authoritarian social politics.