ought together with men, which was unheard of for that time. The Republican Army, defending its government from the Nationalists, was composed of ordinary citizens working together to survive. One of the main heroes of that army was La Pasionaria, a leader of the Communist delegation in the legislature. She had encouraged the general to start women's companies (which were eventually disbanded) and she was a symbol of resistance to oppression for all the soldiers (Wyden, 1983).
Women also had a major role on the homefront. Nash (1995) discussed how ordinary women provided major social services to communities during the Spanish Civil War. Essentially, they extended their nurturing activities to the entire community, providing food, shelter, and health care in a public capacity.
The first woman minister in Spain's history was also under the Republican government. She was an anarchist whose philosophy was that no government was good, but she joined the government along with other anarchists colleagues in a gesture of left-wing solidarity. She became the minister of Health and attempted to act on her ideas, which included such progressive ones as legalizing abortions. This was controversial even among liberals, and doctors put forth great resistance. The decree put forth by Minister Montseny was as liberal as any now current in the United States. It allowed women to have abortions, generally during the first three months of pregnancy, and it allowed them to do so at their sole request, with no others entitled to file a claim against the abortion. The intent was to provide a means for the poor and desperate to limit their families (Wyden, 1983). However, there was great resistance to this ruling and sabotage effectively limited its application. With the victory of Franco, this and all other advances for women were rolled back to positions acceptable to conservative, Catholic, Spain.
To label Spain as "Catholic" Spain i...