Schoolmistresses, Innovation and Change

Abstract

This paper proposes to explain, using a new approach, schoolmistresses in Spain at the turn of the century, as sources of intellectual knowledge, development and social change, in spite of the authority denied them. In order to do this we analyse the spreading of thought as the backbone of a collective conscience that became noticeable firstly in a social feminism that pursued a greater dignification of women and demanded more education and, secondly, in the vindication of the right to vote by suffragist feminism.