Women, sport and francoism in Catalonia: perceptions of sportswomen from the early years of the dictatorship (1939–1961)

Abstract

This research delves into the lives and perspectives of women who embraced physical and sporting pursuits in Catalonia during the tumultuous post-war era and the early years of the Franco dictatorship (1939–1961). It explores the biographies of the sportswomen and uncovers the intricate tapestry of moral and religious dynamics that coloured their experiences. The strategies used to collect data were a document and literature examination, in-depth interviews to 32 women (ranging in age from 73 to 100 years old), and a discussion group. Subsequently, content analysis was conducted using version 7 of the Atlas.ti software. We identified five categories of analysis for the moral sphere, which enabled us to construct a story to help understand the sportswomen’s experiences in the early years of Francoism. Without a doubt, practising sport was not common among women between 1939 and 1961 because it diverged from the model promoted by the Franco regime based on religious, scientific-medical and educational arguments. Within this context of women’s invisibility in the public practice of sport, the interviewees’ voices recounted the influences which led them to start practising sport and the moral pressures exerted by a highly moralised national-Catholic society influenced by the traditional Church, which hindered women from practising sport.

Keywords:

• Women
• sport
• gender
• Francoism
• social history

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The post-war period spanned between 1939 and 1945. After the Civil War, Spain was left devastated and in a precarious economic situation. Between 1945 and 1959 an isolating autarchic economic policy was implemented by Franco’s regime. In an attempt to stabilise the economy and overcome the challenges of autarchy, a series of economic stabilisation plans were implemented starting from 1959.

2 The Sección Femenina was a women’s organisation, a branch of the Falange single-party of the political movement of the Francoist Spain, that aimed to promote and enforce traditional gender roles and values in the society.

3 Pantaloons are women’s undergarments which are gathered at the legs under the knees and were worn under a skirt or petticoat. A pinafore is a women’s sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or jumper and was often worn as a uniform at school.

4 In relation to other aspects, their socioeconomic origin, 18 of the interviewees defined themselves as middle class, 11 of them as upper class, and 3 as lower class. All of them were white women educated in the Catholic religion.

5 In this study, we checked archival documents on the Sección Femenina and the collections of some sport clubs, as well as the press to confirm some of the facts cited by the informants. Ribalta (2016). In relation to the press, the following have been consulted: El Mundo Deportivo (1939–1961), La Vanguardia Española (1939–1961), Dicen (1952–1961) and El Correo Catalán (1939–1961). The sports section of the Francoist film newsreel NODO (1942–1961) has also been consulted.

6 Mercedes Vilanova in the prologue to the book by Thompson (1988).

7 This second part focused on exploring the experiences and perceptions of women in relation to sports practice from different dimensions: social, moral, aesthetic-bodily, and cultural. Topics such as gender differentiated treatment in childhood, economic limitations, moral or religious guidelines, sports preferences, sports clothing, body self-perception, physical education at school, representation of women athletes in the media, and reasons for abandoning sports were addressed.

8 Group discussion (GD) held with 7 sportswomen on 30 June 2015. Notes in possession of the author. Fragments 89–100.

9 Interview with Encarna Hernández, 13 June 2014, Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 103.

10 Interview with Pepita Valls, 3 December 2012 Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragments 228.

11 According to Manrique ‘the search for fun and escape was an authentic psychological need for the majority of the population’ Manrique (2011).

12 GD, fragment 63.

13 With regard to physical education and female sport during the Franco regime, there was a lack of understanding about women practising any kind of physical-sport activity. López (2000).

14 Interviews with Maria Rue, Dolors Beltran and Maria Rosa Balcells, who studied at the French Lycée, and with Berti Belil and Helena Hilde Wust, who studied at the German school.

15 Anonymous article cited by Pastor and Homs (1984), p. 61.

16 Interview with Montserrat Tresserras, fragment 52–68.

17 Interview with Carme Romeu, 2 June 2011, Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragments 132–138.

18 Films such as German filmmaker Arnold Fanck’s works about mountaineering or Jaime Cruells’ books about swimming.

19 Enriqueta Sisquella, 16 July 2014, Igualada Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragments 366; and Interview with Laura and Pepita Biosca, 7 March 2013, Roda de Berà, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 807.

20 Excerpt from a newsletter entitled Montserrat Tresserras, la vencedora del canal, written by Amadeo Castells.

21 Interview with Dolors Sans, 14 March 2011, Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragments 391.

22 Interview with Encarna Hernández, fragment 668.

23 Interview with Pepa Soler, 12 May 2011, Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 206.

24 Interview with Maria Teresa Bartual, 22 February 2013, Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 85.

25 Interview with Paquita Romeu, 29 October 2012, Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 436.

26 Interview with Pilar Pons, 14 November. Fragment 268.

27 Interview with Elsa Verdugo, 26 November 2012, Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragments 636–638.

28 GD, fragment 506.

29 Women were not allowed to be members of the Club Natació Barcelona, and this discriminatory restriction was finally rescinded in 1986 after longstanding protests.

30 Interview with Lluïsa Giró, 12 November 2014, Badalona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragments 352–355.

31 Interview with Alícia Guri, 16 February 2013, Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 245.

32 Interview with Pilar Pons. Fragment 268.

33 Interview with Mercè Guix, 20 February 2013 Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 727.

34 Interview with Pepa Soler. Fragment 67.

35 Ibid., 35.

36 Interview with Josefa González, 13 November 2012, Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragments 293–298.

37 Interview with Pepita Valls. Fragments 212–214.

38 GD. Fragments 593–630.

39 Interview with Encarna Hernández. Fragment 413.

40 Interview with Carme Romeu. Fragment 358.

41 As an example, see the history of the “Dona i Esport” (Women and Sport) prizes awarded by the Barcelona Town Hall at this link: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/donesiesport/ca/historials.php

42 Interview with Encarna Hernández. Fragment 602.

43 The presence of the Catholic Church in public demonstrations was still important throughout the 1950s, as in the case of the Pedal Festival of 1954 in Barcelona (El Mundo Deportivo, 31-05-1954, p. 6).

44 Interview with Laura and Pepita Biosca, 27 March 2013. Fragment 807.

45 Ibid., 1500.

46 Interview with Adelaida Gascón, 3 December 2013, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 257.

47 Interview with Roser Ponsatí, 17 May 2011 Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 65.

48 Ibid., 117 and 131. The Church authorities were heavily involved in the repression of physical and sport education. Rincón (2010). During the Franco era in Spain, the term “hija de María” (daughter of Mary) referred to an unmarried and virgin woman, considered as a model of virtue and purity according to the values imposed by the regime and the Catholic Church.

49 Interview with Ana Maria Pérez, 17 October 2012 Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 168-79; and Interview with Elsa Verdugo. Fragment, 106–120.

50 Interview with Adelaida Gascón. Fragment 259–263.

51 Sección Femenina, Economía doméstica” (1968), Text for baccalaureate, commercial school or teaching school, in Otero, L. (1999), p. 135.

52 Interview with Pepa Soler. Fragment 79.

53 Interview with Montserrat Tresserras, 18 March 2013, Madrid, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 660.

54 Ibid., 707.

55 Interview with Enriqueta Sisquella. Fragments 975–977.

56 Interview with Paquita Romeu. Fragment 266.

57 Interview with Roser Ponsatí. Fragments 65–67. In the same sense, the ‘Patronato de protección de la mujer’ created in 1942, was in charge of surveillance and moral control. He denounced cinemas, swimming pools or dance venues that contravened the rigid norms of the Church (Ortiz, 2006, p. 4).

58 Interview with Laura and Pepita Biosca. Fragments 809–817.

59 Interview with Pilar Pons. Fragments 232–234.

60 Interview with Maria Víctor, 16 October 2012 Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragments 56–56.

61 Interview with Alícia Guri. Fragment 778.

62 Interview with Montserrat Mechó, 28 September 2012 Barcelona, Spain, by Dolors Ribalta. Notes in possession of the author. Fragment 338.

63 GD. Fragment 24.

64 Ibid., 821.

65 Interview with Mercè Guix. Fragment 729.

66 Ibid., 439.

67 Interview with Pilar Pons. Fragments 320–322.

68 Dolors Ribalta Alcalde, Dones, esport i dictadura: la memòria oral d’esportistes catalanes durant la primera etapa del franquisme, 73.

69 Law on the Press 14/1966, dated 18 March 1966, Boletín Oficial del Estado, 67, 19 March 1966, pp. 3310–3315.

70 In 1975 the Delegación Nacional de Deportes (DND) commissioned to the company ICSA Gallup a survey on the practice of and intIn 1975 the DND commissioned to the company ICSA Gallup a survey on the practice of and interest in sport in Spain. That survey, which was conducted among 2000 citizens, was not published but was later recovered by a sociologist Manuel García Ferrando. The results showed that only 22% of Spanish citizens practiced sport. The rate for women was of 12.8%. Ferrando (2020). Vázquez and Alfaro (2020).