Spanish Spinsterhood in Comparative Context: Single in Franco’s Spain
Julia Hudson-Richards, Penn State Altoona
In this paper, I argue that spinsterhood, and opinions about spinsterhood, present interesting opportunities for discussions about historical continuities. Mary Salas’s Nosotras las solteras discusses the problems surrounding singlehood in Franco’s Spain – when marriage and family were crucial to the construction of womanhood. There was room for singlehood – many of the women leaders of the fascist Sección Femenina, for example, were single – but silence surrounded women who remained unmarried in other contexts. This paper will examine the Spanish case in some comparative contexts – how did Franco’s Spain compare to the US, to Britain, and other Cold War western societies? The political differences did not translate to absolute cultural differences, and gender ideologies were remarkably similar.