Religious and lay women in the franquism: between dictatorship and opposition

Abstract

In this paper a state of the art is made upon the religious women’s evolution and the secular ones, middle class and workers, from the ‘Catholic Action’ in the franquism. This dictatorship found in the church a great support. In the decades of the forties and fifties, these women take part in the political and moral control of the Spanish women and their political presence is important. In the following decades, they experiment a profound change towards a greater compromise. Of course all this leads to a scene of tensions due to the dictatorship and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and to a crisis that gives rise to the secularization of many religious women and the abandonment of the ‘Catholic Action’ of many militants. However, in this stage of greater testimony, their recognition decreases.