Ángel del hogar y perfecta casada / angel of the home and perfect wife: The construction of womanhood under the sección femenina during post-Spanish civil war Franco dictatorship 1939–1975
Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
School
School of Arts and Humanities
First Supervisor
Panizza Allmark
Second Supervisor
Laura Glitsos
Abstract
This is a creative PhD, in which my work as a visual artist provides a critical feminist response to the role of women during the Spanish Civil War and post-Franco period. I inform my creative practice, utilising qualitative research within a feminist cultural studies framework that engages with gendered cultural history, narratives, and family oral histories to convey women’s cultural experiences in Spain under the fascist Franco dictatorship (1939–1975). Womanhood during this time was defined and controlled by the Sección Femenina (Women’s Section), the women’s branch of the Falange, the sole political party during the Franco regime. This research focuses on the use of the female body as a cultural product through the practices and initiatives created by the Sección Femenina under the control of the Franco regime, reviving the traditional Catholic Spanish values from the imperial past in the reconstruction and unification of the ideal Spanish woman. These initiatives, echoing the ideologies of the Francoist ‘New State’, positioned women within the domestic space with the primary purpose and duty of becoming perfect wives and prolific mothers dedicated to family. Through my creative re-representation of Spanish motifs, icons, art and culture, and with my use of self-portraiture, I carry traces from the past forward into the present, forming art works that attempt to capture the essence of a Spanish identity and serve as cultural historical reminders. This work challenges and critiques the patriarchal ideologies of the past, dismantling the construction of Spanish womanhood to construct a space for intervention, activism and the voices of female histories that have been denied and silenced to be heard.
DOI
10.25958/nc4j-0h70
Access Note
Access to this thesis is embargoed until 8th December 2028.
Recommended Citation
Fernandez, E. T. (2023). Ángel del hogar y perfecta casada / angel of the home and perfect wife: The construction of womanhood under the sección femenina during post-Spanish civil war Franco dictatorship 1939–1975. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/nc4j-0h70