Influencers, Activists, and Women's Rights

Book excerpt: The newspaper columnist Carmen de Burgos Seguí caused a sensation in 1903 when she called for a public discussion on divorce, then illegal in Spain. The fierce debate that ensued among Spain's leading thinkers--politicians, academics, feminists, journalists, and others--is collected in Divorce in Spain. This milestone volume ultimately contributed to Spain's legalizing divorce in the 1930s--a victory for women's rights that was subsequently rolled back by the Franco dictatorship and not regained for over fifty years. The opinions showcased here illuminate the uniqueness of feminism in early-twentieth-century Spain: because ideas about marriage and the role of women in society were anchored in Catholic teachings, feminist arguments focused on rights to education, divorce, and employment instead of on suffrage.