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Women's Studies International Forum, Vol. 19, Nos. I/2, pp. 45-54, 1996 Copyright 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 0277-5395/96 $15.00 + .00

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POLITICAL CULTURE, CATALAN NATIONALISM, AND THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY SPAIN
MARY NASH Department of Contemporary History, Facultad de Geograffa e Historia, University of Barcelona, Calle Baldiri i Reixach, an.Barcelona, 08028 Spain

Synopsis - - This article discusses the relationship between political culture, state construction, and Catalan nationalism in relation to the development of the women's movement in early 20th century Catalonia. The historical understanding of Spanish feminisms has to account for political diversity, central state national values, and nationalist cultural identity in the articulation of the diverse strands of the women's movement. This study also argues that the liberal identification of feminism with the struggle for female enfranchisement constitutes an insufficient interpretative framework for the study of historical feminism in Spain. Feminism is explored as a social movement that is shaped by women's collective historical experience and social apprenticeship in social movements, political culture, and gender realities. In this ease, it is argued that the social itinerary of Catalan women through their integration into the Catalan nationalist movement structured their collective expectations and shaped their view of feminism.

This article addresses the issue of the relationship between political culture, state construction, and nationalism in the historical development of the women's movement in early 20th century Spain. It points to the importance of nationalism in the building of Spanish feminism with a particular focus on its development in the case of Catalonia. In this framework, it questions the tendency to perceive Spanish f e m i n i s m as a h o m o g e n e o u s m o v e m e n t , defined from the liberal perspective of the struggle for women's political rights (Fagoaga, 1985; Scanlon, 1986). This study argues that the renunciation of the struggle against the legal subordination of women does not necessarily imply compliance with gender identity and role models, nor necessarily invalidate a definition of the women's movement as femiI would like to thank Eileen Yeo, Gisela Bock, Mary O'Dowd, and Sabine Wishart for the occasion to discuss different versions of this paper at the following conferences: "Mary Wollstonecraft: 200 Years of Feminism," University of Sussex, December 1992; "Rethinking Women and Gender Relations in the Modern State," University of Bielefeld, April 1993; and "The History of W o m e n , " Queen's University of Belfast, May 1993. I am also indebted to Barbara Einhom for her comments on this article. 45

nist. The agenda of female enfranchisement, or lack of it, has to be understood in the context of political culture and the development of state politics within Spain. The tendency toward the application o f macro historical interpretations of historical feminism on a national and international level needs to be challenged and, also, the application of Northern European interpretative frameworks to Mediterranean Europe. This paper, thus, raises the issue of the specificity of the historical development of feminism and, also, the need to take account of its diversity. In this context, the interpretative framework for the study of historical feminism must be revised by querying the dichotomy between the equality/difference stance in the definition of historical feminism and also the legitimacy of defining mainstream/peripheral, radical/conservative feminism on this basis. Recent debates on historical feminism have begun to contest such rigid, oppositional categories in the definition of historical women's movements (Often, 1988; Cott, 1989a). Current studies on feminism in Britain and the United States have also opened up an ongoing debate on the status of liberal feminism. Rereading the political genealogy of

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fLrst wave feminism has led to the contesting of many traditional assumptions about the grounding of feminism, and has also pointed to the many faces of liberal feminism (Cott, 1987; Levine, 1990; Rendall, 1987). Highly influenced by more traditional AngloAmerican equality models of interpretation for the development of feminism, the predominant interpretative framework in Spanish historiography has tended to portray historical feminism from the perspective of equality (Capel, 1992; Fagoaga, 1985; Folguera, 1988; Scanlon, 1986). This paper argues that the application of a more traditional Anglo-American equality interpretative framework is not necessarily valid for Mediterranean Europe and specifically not so in the case of Spain (Bonacchi & Groppi, 1993; Hause, 1984; Nash, 1994; Often, 1988). Spanish studies on first wave feminism have given preferential attention to political feminism. This interpretative scheme has p o r t r a y e d Spanish feminism as a liberal development based on the application of the principles of equality and political rights to women. The blanket application of a liberal interpretative framework based on the notion of individual political rights, equality, individual freedom, and enfranchisement as the core definition of feminism has constricted the definition of historical feminism and, thus, limited the conceptualization of feminism as a social movement. As a result, feminism as an historical movement appears to have been of little impact in Spain and in Catalonia (Nash, 1991). This article argues that the liberal identification of feminism with the struggle for female enfranchisement together with the restriction of feminist claims to individual political rights constitute an insufficient interpretative framework for the study of historical feminism in Spain. The construction of feminism is a complex historical phenomenon that cannot be conceived in terms of linear development or of preconceived notions of feminism. The understanding of the women's movement in Spain mutt account for the complex socio-political and gender circumstances of its development. This paper claims that the historical women's movement has to be seen as a pluralistic, ongoing process that embraced multiple definitions of feminism in its specific manifestations. Our understanding of Spanish feminisms has to account for political diversity, central state national values, and nationalist cultural identity

in the articulation of the diverse strands of the women's movement. In that sense, it is argued that politics and the state are at the core of the formulation of gender identity and the women's struggle in Spain. This study also sees feminism as a social movement that is shaped by women's collective historical experience and social apprenticeship in social movements, political culture and gender realities. In this case, it is argued that the social itinerary of Catalan women through their integration into the Catalan nationalist movement structured their coll~tive expectations and inspired their programmes. The historical experience of upper-class Catalan women in gender reality, social class, political culture, and national identity shaped their expression of feminism and the women's movement. P O L I T I C A L CULTURE AND T H E DEVELOPMENT OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT It is my understanding that feminism in Spain did not focus primarily on demands for women's suffrage and political rights because the overall political context was not conducive to such an orientation. The weakness of the parliamentary system set up in the transition from the Ancien Regime characterized the development of the Spanish political system in the 19th century. The disintegration of absolutism and the consolidation of liberalism in the 1830s arose from a complex combination of economic problems, internal dissensions in the absolutist ranks, and a compromise between the weak liberal political class and the privileged ruling estates of the Ancien Regime. This model of transition to a liberal state shaped its conservative tendencies and hindered economic development as the political and economic interests of the former agrarian nobility clashed with those of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie. The frailty of the liberal state underlined the conservative nature of existing social structures. The profound regional differences in Spain account for diverse social, economic, and political trajectories within the country. The uneven economic development in the different regions is crucial to the understanding of the sharp contrast in the social condition of women throughout Spain. As well, cultural and national differences account for the development of women's consciousness, inextricably linked to the political and social development of the different regions.

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Nineteenth-century Spanish history is characterized by sharp discontinuities in the liberal revolution and by the ongoing struggle to modernize the state. Historian Jos6 Maria Jover Zamora has characterized the constitutional, representative system established under the Restoration of the monarchy by the Bourbon d y n a s t y in 1875 as one that r e s e m b l e s Mediterranean models of parliamentary regimes in the era of imperialism. This model is based fundamentally on a dualism: The existence of a formal liberal constitutional system combined, in practice, with parliamentary malfunctioning, fraudulent elections, royal designation of governments irrespective of electoral results, the m a i n t e n a n c e o f a m i n o r i t y elite g r o u p in power, and the political marginalisation of vast proportions of the population (Jover Zamora, 1981; Garcia, Luis et al., 1985). This political system operated to guarantee existing social structures and impede access to power by any political forces that questioned the foundations of the regime. Until the introduction of democracy with the Second Republic in 1931, political life still functioned on the basis of caciquismo (patronage), electoral fraud, and political power in the hands of a minority elite. These political practices were responsible for the creation o f a political climate based on a growing mistrust of the constitutional system. The popular association of parliamentary malfunctioning with the actual political system itself gave rise to a political culture that did not necessarily identify political progress with political rights (Jover Zamora, 1981), leading to the growth of the anarchist movement and the distancing of many social sectors from political participation. Until the 1930s with the development of political reform under the democratic Second Republic, the social legitimization of individual rights was not the key factor in the Spanish liberal and democratic tradition. In this political scenario, it is not surprising, then, to find that women did not focus either on political rights. Political culture in Spain was very unfavorable for the development of a liberal political feminism such as had arisen in Britain or the United States (Cott, 1987; Levine, 1990). Despite the political focus of the predominant interpretative f r a m e w o r k that defines Spanish feminism in terms of the struggle for female enfranchisement, this has not accounted

for the political expression of some strands of the women's movement. The unitary approach to feminism, seen as a homogeneous Spanish movement has, in fact, blurred the nationalist specificity of some streams of the women's m o v e m e n t such as was the case with the Catalan women's movement. Moreover, state politics shaped many strands of Spanish feminisms, even those that rejected any regional nationalist claims. In this sense, it is highly significant that nationalist discourse in the sense of Spanish nationalism, was a core element of the Asociacifn Nacional de Mujeres Espaholas, one of the most combative feminist organizations in Spain in the 1920s. The patriotism of the Associacifn was clearly expressed in its programme as its first stated goal was to "oppose, by whatever means available to the Association, any act or manifestation that threatens the integrity of the national territory" (Aguado et al., 1994, p. 398). 1 Opposition to the n a t i o n a l i s m s o f the periphery and the defence of the Central State constituted a key feature of Spanish feminism in opposition to the n a t i o n a l i s t d e f i n i t i o n o f the C a t a l a n women's movement. The limitation of the definition of feminism to political rights and individual freedom also falls to account for other manifestations of the collective aspirations of women, formulated in terms of women's social rights, such as was the case in Catalonia. Political culture led Catalan women to legitimate their claims for women's rights on the basis of gender difference rather than the paradigm of equality (Nash, 1994). It also shaped the definition of the w o m e n ' s movement as social feminism. It goes beyond the scope of this article to explore a further basis for the formulation of Catalan feminism through a social, rather than a political lens as prevailing norms of gender identity led to the legitimization of feminist claims in terms of gender difference rather than equality (Nash, 1994). The development of the Catalan women's movement clearly shows its ascription to gender codes of conduct and the codes of domesticity (Nash, 1993). However, this study posits that it formulated a social perception of feminism in the sense that it came to question one of the basic paradigms of gender codes of conduct - - women's relegation to the domestic arena of the home - - and to claim women's rights in civil society, in the fields of education and paid work.

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N A T I O N A L I S M AND T H E F O R M U L A T I O N OF CATALAN FEMINISM The development of the women's movement in Catalonia was primarily articulated through its adherence to the nationalist cause. The mobilization of women within the canons of nationalist discourse can give considerable insights into the the gender construction of national identity and the development of gender identity and feminist consciousness. In the early 20th century, the Catalan women's movement developed within the scenario of Catalan nationalism. The political struggle between the Central State and Catalonia decisively shaped the orientation of the Catalan women's movement in quite a different way to the rest o f Spain. Politics was crucial in the actual definition of the aims and strategies of the women's movement in Catalonia, in the sense that it developed as a n a t i o n a l i s t and thus p o l i t i c a l l y defined movement. However, its involvement with politics did not mean that political g e n d e r issues such as women's political rights or suffrage were high on its agenda. In fact, despite its political affiliation to the nationalist movement, until the 1930s Catalan feminism can be defined as social f e m i n i s m oriented to the achievement of women's rights in civil society. This p a p e r posits that it was the o n g o i n g involvement of the women's movement with Catalan nationalism that eventually lead it to reformulate the idea of citizenship and political rights and apply it to the condition of women. The politicization of Catalan feminism, thus, came about through the scope of their social a c t i v i s m and their r e r e a d i n g o f f e m i n i s m through the lens of political nationalism. Their rethinking of gender relations was expressed in relation to the Spanish state and Catalan society and was, thus, politically and class motivated although not formulated initially in terms of political rights for women. One of the characteristics of early Catalan feminism was its specific reformulation of other definitions of international feminism. Catalan cultural identity played a prominent role in this redefinition of an authentic Catalan variety of feminism. The women's movement openly proceeded to redefine its own version of feminism more in consonance with the ideological convictions of conservative Catalan nationalism and Catholic reform. By 1910 the termfemi-

nism had become quite common and was openly used by the women of the Catalan bourgeoisie to define their movement for the promotion of Catalan women. By 1915, it was being discussed in such distinguished institutions as the Barcelona Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation (Tell y Lafont, 1915). However, women activists in the unions and the anarchist movement did not tend to use the term nor did they overtly identify with a feminist cause, although feminist consciousness permeated some of their social mobilization and collective action (Ackelsberg, 1991; Kaplan, 1982; Nash, 1981, in press). The doyenne of the early Catalan movement, the writer, social reformer, and nationalist, Dolors Monserd~t, explicitly adopted the t e r m feminist in her 1909 s t u d y Estudi Feminism. She rejected the lay, foreign cultural basis of British and American feminism and redefined her version of feminism in consonance with Catalan cultural values and Catholic tradition. As she proclaimed, the specific goal in writing her book on feminism was precisely to counteract the effect of an alien feminism that flourishes in lay centers where, under the promise to improve women's lives, subversive, t r e m e n d o u s l y d e m o r a l i z i n g d o c t r i n e s are expressed; because they change the principles and fundamental truths of Religion, Family, and Society (Monserd~ 1909, p. 4). Monserd~t also m o b i l i z e d w o m e n for the nationalist cause. Her writings developed the view o f women as the bearers of Catalan values such as the work ethic, cultural tradition, and language. She, thus, gave a gender definition to Catalan national identity as she felt that women were the guardians of cultural heritage and the key to socializing future generations in Catalan culture and traditions. For Monserdit, w o m e n played a decisive role in Catalan nationalism as they were key agents in the construction of Catalan society through their work, their transmission o f Catalan culture, and the future development of Catalonia through their gender role in the family. Mainstream Catalan feminist thought was based on the recognition of gender difference and motherhood as the defining role of women, but it also sought the promotion of women's rights. Thus, Dolors Monserd~ understood feminism both as a struggle for women's rights and the perfection of women's mission in the family and society: "Work for the improvement

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of woman, for the defence of her rights, to protest against the vexations and injustices to which she is subjected, and, finally, for the perfection of her mission in the family and society" (Monserd~, 1909, p. 4). Monserd~t's wellknown novel, La Fabricanta (1904), identified women as crucial agents in the development of Catalan society. Antonieta, the main character in the novel, is thefabricanta, the woman manufacturer, the epitome of the energetic, enterprising Catalan woman. Her initiative brings prosperity to her family but she must also comply to the restraints of her gender role as a s u b m i s s i v e s p o u s e and s e c o n d a r y figure. Monserd~t's sympathetic rendering of the tension between traditional gender codes and w o m e n ' s agency speaks also to the conflict generated by the Catalan women's movement, which in a m o d e r a t e way, q u e s t i o n e d the boundaries of gender restrictions while acquiescing in cultural and class norms of conduct. Upper-middle-class Catalan women were quite aware of the importance of their role in forging Catalan cultural identity and used this as an argument to acquire further educational and cultural facilities. Significantly, one of the major Catalan women's journals, Or y Grana was entitled Autonomous Weekly f o r Women, Promoter of a Patriotic League for Ladies. On October 6, 1906, it claimed that it was the female incarnation of patriotic feelings and linked the development of the Fatherland to the family and, consequently, to women as the basic nurturers o f both family and Patria. Despite this traditional patriotic discourse, there was a slight implicit criticism of male supremacy and a growing demand for a recognition o f w o m e n ' s role in society. Women's mobilization was also perceived in Catalan society as an expression of women's demand for greater social agency. At times it was viewed as a potential threat to male supremacy as is higlighted in the front page caricature by Junoy in Or y Grana, 28 D e c e m b e r 1906, depicting a tall, imposing, elegant woman with a whip in her hand, leading a tiny man on a dog lead. The Catalan women's movement was highly contradictory as it generated considerable tension between its m o r e traditional, even c o n f e s s i o n a l f o c u s , and its d e m a n d s f o r women's rights. There was a vexed relationship b e t w e e n e m a n c i p a t o r y d e m a n d s for women and the avowal of more traditional gen-

der norms and cultural values. Catalan social feminism demanded women's rights in civil society, focusing on women's access to education and paid work. The improvement of educational facilities, access to culture and professional training were high on the women's agenda and represented the major drive of the movement. Given the deficiencies of the official s c h o o l and e d u c a t i o n a l s y s t e m f o r women, Catalan women took the initiative in this field and provided cultural and educational facilities for women. In Spain, gender differentiation in education was d e e p l y e m b e d d e d in c u l t u r a l n o r m s (Cortada Andreu, 1988). A very influential work by Antonio Pirala, called El libro de oro de la educaci6n de las nihas had first been published in the 1850s. In the 1915 revised edition, it made the distinction between gender educational models quite diaphanous: "Far be it f r o m m e the idea o f giving w o m e n the scholastic education that men receive: on the contrary, they must be taught to be women, provident as an ant, industrious as a bee" (Peset et al., 1978, p. 136). Over generations women had internalized gender codes and differential educational norms. To a large degree they continued to aspire to an education that did not respond to their own personal development but rather to their specific training within the confines of their traditionally ascribed gender roles. By the turn of the century the important advances in the cultural expectations of m i d d l e - c l a s s w o m e n w e r e u n d e r l i n e d by Carme Karr, the Catalan feminist and director of the women's journal Feminal. However, her remarks also highlight the limited horizons of women's educational demands that were still contained within w o m e n ' s ordained role as educated, companionate wives: [They] want to understand the problems that form the spiritual life of a man, so that they will not be only the servant, the dispenser, the prolific mother, or the clotheshorse for precious clothes that serve only to proclaim the wealth of the head of the family . . . . While not aspiring to being scholars they have managed to understand that the veritable science of a modern woman is to elevate her spirit and her taste in such a way that men will find in her something eminently n e c e s s a r y for his spiritual life and his improvement. (Karr, 1910, p. 23)

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Women's interest in wider educational facilities cannot be viewed as an overt challenge to their traditional family role. It is, however, a symptom of change and shows some revision of more traditional viewpoints on education and women's relation to men. The aspiration to become educated represented a certain degree of upgrading in the status of the wife and also wider female cultural expectations. No doubt the emergence of this concern for female education can also be attributed to the modernization of the family, a growing awareness of the need for better educated mothers to carry out their task of socialization and education of their offspring and the development of the new gender model of the "New Modern Woman" (Nash, 1988b, 1993). Furthermore, not all women encouraged a gender designed education aimed at fomenting male prerogatives. Some were most outspoken in their attack of such initiatives. As early as 1892, the writer Emilia Pardo Bazhn had already vigorously denounced the instrumentalization of women and the gender focus of female education: "The present-day education of women, in truth, cannot be called education as such," she caustically proclaimed "rather must it be called taming, as its proposed objective is obedience, passivity and submission" (Baz~in, 1976, p. 92). However, despite the many initiatives for the improvement of women's education undertaken in Catalonia by the renowned pedagogue, Rosa Sensat, innovative educational models challenging educational gender roles were not developed (Cortada Andreu, 1988). Official recognition of women's access to Higher Education was not conceded until 1910. By then, some women had attended universities although their degrees had not had official recognition. In this context it is surprising that the Catalan women's movement did not focus on improving university education for upperclass women. Its drive centered on providing educational facilities for lower middle-class and working-class women. However, it must be remembered that levels of female illiteracy were very high, representing 71% of the female population of Spain in 1900. They had dropped considerably by 1930, but still represented between 31% and 40% in urban and rural C a t a l o n i a ( C o r t a d a Andreu, 1988, p. 46). Significant, too, in this decision to engage in lower- and working-class women's education was the interclass political convergence in the

Catholic social reform movement, largely promoted by upper-middle-class women activists with the goal of providing social services for the working class. Another core element in Catalan feminism was the reconceptualization of women's domestic and paid work with the demand for recognition of its dignity and social worth. This, in turn, led to claims for the economic remuneration o f h o u s e w i v e s , p r e s e n t e d by S c h o o l Inspector Leonor Serrano in 1916, and also to specific activities designed to foment women's rights to professional training and adequate paid work. An outstanding example of the complex, contradictory character of Catalan social feminism was the Institut de Cultura i Biblioteca Popular de la Dona, founded in Barcelona in 1909 by Francesca Bonnemaison (Maci~t, 1988). It was the m o s t i m p o r t a n t women's educational institution in Catalonia and functioned until the Civil War. It had a very large number of students which by the 1930s reached over 8,000 annually. Like many other initiatives, it developed under the auspices of the Catholic reform movement and Catalan nationalism. It was confessional in its transmission of traditional religious values in its teaching, and was religiously oriented in its insertion into the dynamics of Catholic social reform. It was also class oriented as it aligned with the bourgeoisie and sought to provide lower class women with a clearly defined middie-class education and cultural values. In this sense, it can be seen as a gendered class device in a very conflictive Barcelona to avoid social confrontation between the working class and upper-class bourgeoisie through the projection of social values based on interclass social harmony. It was also nationalist in its approach as the education of women in the parameters of the Catalan cultural heritage was one of its primary goals. The politics of this institution have tended to be defined as essentially conservative, yet we miss something if we presume at the outset that it can only be seen from a class perspective of social control or as a centre for professional training to fill the new demands of the labor market in response to the needs of the male political leaders of the Catalan bourgeoisie (Nash, 1988b; Maci~t, 1988). The significance of the lnstitut is that it was also gender specific as it was a women's initiative. It was directed and run by the highly competent

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Francesca Bonnemaison and a team of teachers to provide culture, education, and professional training. Moreover, these highly capable women confronted standard gender norms of behavior of the time by promoting, organizing, and developing the Institut, an educational institution in the public sphere unique in the context of Spain at that time. It was also of interest from a gender perspective because it offered a high standard of education to women as it not only supplemented deficiencies in official institutions but, more significantly, queried traditional educational models for women. It provided professional training for women that opened up new occupational horizons in the labor market. It was decisive in creating self-esteem and a belief in their professional capacity among its students. In this way, it was also crucial in changing mentality toward the admission of paid work as a legitimate option for middleand lower-middle-class unmarried women. T H E P O L I T I C I Z A T I O N OF T H E CATALAN W O M E N ' S M O V E M E N T Catalan social feminism articulated claims for feminist rights on the basis of gender difference. However, by the late 1920s the demands of Catalan women changed somewhat, influenced by the political struggle for the nationalist rights of Catalonia and democracy. This p r e o c c u p a t i o n with national rights placed women's claims in a political context that progressively politicized their demands. Women's role in the nationalist movement was still based on differential gender norms and, more specifically, on women's primordial function in the family through the socialization of children in the basic parameters of Catalan traditions. Nonetheless, the formulation of feminist claims through the filter of nationalism gradually gave a more political content to women's rights and eventually led to a more egalitarian discourse. By the 1930s there was a significant shift in Catalan feminism which embraced demands for equality, political rights, suffrage and women's participation in politics. In 1931, the new democratic regime was heralded by Catalan women as the moment to demand their political rights and their legitimacy as active political subjects (Nash, 1988a, pp. 243-264). A significant sector of Catalan feminism then developed a more politically oriented egalitarian discourse to claim their political rights and, after the conces-

sion of women's suffrage in late 1931, a more active role in the political arena. In the electoral campaign of June 1931, a group of Catalan women claimed equal political rights as individuals, no longer defined by their gender roles as mothers. In a text called "Les Dones Catalanes" published in the newspaper L'Opinit, (29 June 1931) they proclaimed: It is time to end flattering promises. There have been some for everybody except us. The candidates and their friends have had this lapse which may come to be regretted. Only Esquerra Catalana has remembered to say that it will accord careful protection to mothers and children. That is not what we want: we do not ask for protection; we want our rights to be recognized as equal to those of men. Now that it is time to structure a people, let it not seem that there are only men on earth. In the early 1930s, women participated in politics largely through their identification with Catalan nationalism and its political promotion. It was through their identification with nationalist rights and claims that they developed, at times, a specific gender political awareness. TOWARD A D E F I N I T I O N O F CATALAN FEMINISM The development of a feminist movement in Catalonia shows how, even within the confines of class, women of the Catalan bourgeoisie came to grips with restricted gender norms and opened up new horizons in social and cultural fields that were initially contrary to the existing gender code of femininity. Although their definition of feminism was not based on political rights for women, they claimed civil and social rights in the fields of work and education. They demanded recognition of women's work, an i m p r o v e d social status and the right to be active in many socio-cultural fields. In this way they questioned the boundaries that restricted gender norms of female activity to the private sphere. They created new spaces for women that were socially defined through gender roles and constructed through the development of national cultural identity in its definition of feminism. Throughout the early 20th century most of the leaders of the Catalan women's movement were married. Nonetheless, they did

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not espouse the gender model of domesticity as angels of the home and did not stay in the kingdom of the home, but, rather, occupied significant positions in the public arena. Women such as Dolors Monserd~, Francesca Bonnemalson, Carme Karr, and Rosa Sensat were acknowledged figures in the fields of culture, education, Catholic reform, and social welfare. Although they did not challenge male hierarchy and many gender norms, they did not accept the separation of public and private spheres and women's confinement to the domestic domain. However, this raises an even wider issue concerning the actual redefinition of public and private and the terms in which it is enacted in different socio-historical situations. To what extent is there a redefmition of the public when women occupy this terrain? Does the presence of women in the public arena reconvert this sphere into a semipublic or intermediate area? In other words, does the feminization of certain public arenas such as social welfare or voluntary education change the actual connotation of public and private? In the case of the early 20th century, the access of w o m e n to the public field of social welfare and education appears to have represented a decisive improvement in their social status. However, in terms of the construction of gender relations, it was articulated on the acknowledgement of difference and the gender basis of social relations. What was the significance of these changing boundaries of public and private for Catalan women? Access to the public sphere was legitimized on the basis of women's traditional role as mother and spouse: an unpaid nurturer. Yet, it chall e n g e d the d i s c o u r s e on d o m e s t i c i t y and opened up, for the first time, personal and professional options for women outside the home. It gave them access to a new world which, although confined, could also accelerate a process of consciousness of women's rights and emancipation. Their view of feminism together with an awareness of their cultural identity as Catalans forged a redefinition of the parameters of gender relations. Current historiography has developed analytical categories to qualify different manifestations of feminism. The contributions of Karen Offen in her analysis of familial and relational feminism and the recent development of the set of ideas on maternalism by many historians have raised the issue of the multiple definitions of feminism and women's politics (Koven &

Michel, 1993; Often, 1984, 1988). Current debates have also centered on the boundaries of feminism and its historical definition (Cott, 1989a, 1989b). Feminism and the redefinition of gender relations are not commensurate. In the case of the Catalan women's movement, this raises the vexed issue of how to define the emancipatory will to challenge gender norms of conduct and role models. Can demands for women's social rights be termed as feminist intentions? The construction of f e m i n i s m t h r o u g h h i s t o r i c a l e x p e r i e n c e and social apprenticeship needs to confront the definition of w o m e n ' s m o v e m e n t s that claimed to be feminist at that time, but do not conform to current definitions of feminism (Nash, 1994). Over the past two decades feminist history has made significant steps in the process of understanding complex historical realities, women's agency and their social movements (Offen, Roach Pearson, & Rendall, 1991). If historical feminism is considered as a social movement with multiple strands characterized by the specificity of their strategies and goals then, perhaps, an analogy to the labour movement may be useful (Nash & Tavera, 1994). Social history has shown the many paths to social and class consciousness by workingclass movements. The analytical tools of current historiography allow for a classification of these movements while focusing also on the understanding of issues such as working-class cultures, forms of sociability, strategies of collective action, labour struggles, and the creation of class identity. As a social movement, feminism, too, has many tendencies, goals, and strategies for resistance and contestation. In the same way that social historians have not disqualified as part of a wider social labour movement, those labour movements that have lacked political will or revolutionary goals, so too, historians of feminism do not necessarily have to define historical feminism in terms of open rupture with a patriarchal order. The history of the labour movement has brought to light the many strategies used by the working class to achieve its emancipation, at times through revolutionary, political goals but also through strategies forcing moderate improvements in working conditions. The history of feminism needs to identify and reconsider the many paths and strategies to women's emancipation. Overt confrontation with patriarchal norms facilitaties a historical definition of a

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feminist movement. Yet we must be attentive, too, to the need to differentiate between feminist rhetoric and emancipatory practices that do not always necessarily coincide, and to identify the contradictions and paradoxes in the social conduct of many women who identified themselves or have been identified as feminists (Nash, in press). Other paths of feminist resistance may imply less obvious contestations of a patriarchal order, but may have been effective in forcing a redefinition of the social sexual contract and a renegotiation of the terms of established gender codes of male domination (Pateman, 1989). Political feminism and suffragism achieved legislative changes that eliminated discriminatory political measures which ensured women's political inequality. The political enfranchisement of women did not, however, eliminate cultural mechanisms of informal social control through gender norms that continued to ensure discriminatory gender relations for women. The development of less overt challenges to patriarchal norms through a questioning of some o f the paradigms of gender codes o f behaviour may be seen as an effective feminist strategy in achieving changes in collective mentality and gender cultural values. Feminism has been defined by its capacity to openly contest w o m e n ' s discrimination. Perhaps it can also be defined through its capacity to negotiate gender changes in society, that may eventually, but not necessarily, lead to feminist goals of women's emancipation. ENDNOTE
1. All translations from Spanish are by the author.

Horas Editorial. Cortada Andreu, Esther. (1988). Escuela mixta y coeducaci6n en CataluFta durante la Segunda Rep~blica.

Madrid, Spain: Instituto de la Mujer. CoR, Nancy E (1987). The grounding o f modern feminism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Cott, Nancy F. (1989a). Comment on Karen Offen's "Defining feminism." Signs: Journal o f Women in Culture and Society, 15, 203--205. Cott, Nancy E (1989b). What's in a name'?. The limits of "Social Feminism" or, expanding the vocabulary of women's history. Journal o f American History, 76, 809-829. Fagoaga, Concha. (1985). La voz y el voto de lets mujeres, 1877-1931. Barcelona, Spain: Icaria. Folguera, Pilaf (Ed.). (1988). El feminismo en EspaFta: Dos siglos de historia. Madrid, Spain: Fundaci6n Pablo Iglesias. Garcfa, Delgado, & Luis, Jos6 et al. (1985). La E s p a ~ de
la Restauraci6n: polftica, econom[a, legislaci6n y cultura. Madrid, Spain: Siglo XXI. Hause, Steven C. (1984). Women's suffrage and social politics in the French Third Republic. Princeton, N J:

Princeton University Press. Jover Zamora, Jos~ M. (1981). I.~ 6poca de la Restauraci6n. Panorama polftico-social, 1875-1902. In Manuel Tufi6n de Lara et al., Revolaci6n burguesa, oligarqufa y constitucionalismo. Barcelona, Spain: Labor. Kaplan, Temma. (1982). Female consciousness and collective action: The case of Barcelona, 1910-1918. Signs:
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Karr, Carme. (1910). Cultura Femenina, Estudi y Orientacions. Conferencies donades en I'Ateneu Barceion~s els dies 6,13, y 20 d'abdl de 1910. Barcelona, Spain: Tip. L'Avenq. Koven, Seth, & Michel, Sonya (Eds.). (1993). Mothers of a
new world: Maternalist politics and the origins o f welfare states. London: Routledge. Levine, Philippa. (1990). Feminist lives in Victorian England: P r i v a t e roles a n d p u b l i c c o m m i t m e n t .

Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Luna, Joana, & Maci~, Elisenda. (1988). L'Associacionisme femenf: Catolicisme social, catalinisme i lleure. In Mary Nash (Ed.), Mds enll& del silenci. Barcelona, Spain: Generalitat de Catalunya. Maci~, Elisenda. (1988). L'Institut de cultura: Un model de promoci6 cultural per a la dona catalana. L'Avenf,
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