December 1, 2025

Women and Fascist Political Culture in Cold War Spain: The Feminine Section of the Spanish Falange and the 1956 Political Crisis

Key Points

Political crisis marked a transition in the Franco regime's approach to governance, impacting roles within its political system.
The Franco regime experienced a political crisis, but the Feminine Section's response remains underexplored and pivotal.
Analysis of ideological reassessment illustrates the interplay between women and political structures in Francoist Spain.
In-depth insights into Francoist culture highlight the significance of women's roles amid changing political dynamics.

Abstract

Abstract: Throughout the second half of the 1950s, the Franco regime experienced an acute political crisis resulting from the final phase in its prolonged process of defascistization. This article examines the ways in which militants of the Feminine Section of Spain's single party under the dictatorship ( Sección Femenina de la Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista , or SF) reacted to the crisis. By analyzing the process of internal structural and ideological reassessment that was launched by the SF, this article tackles two important yet relatively unexplored questions: How did the SF's leadership interpret core concepts within Spanish fascist ideology in the context of the early Cold War years and the geopolitical changes it generated? How did the organization view the state, the single-party structure, and its militants' role within a political system in which fascism still held a position of power, albeit not an exclusive one?

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