‘They won't kill me like a dog’. Voices and experiences of the women of the anti-Francoist guerrilla in post-war Spain.

Abstract

This paper reports on the historiographical renewal in the study of women's participation in the armed anti-Francoist resistance in post-war Spain. For years, that resistance has been poorly known and studied, considered a minor and marginal phenomenon despite the fact that it have had a notable influence on the social and political evolution of a large part of rural Spain in the post-war period. The role of women in this resistance is even less known and studied, partly because of the small number of women who actually took up arms. Starting from the paradox of women's limited participation in the armed struggle after a civil war that at its outset had provoked the mobilisation of many women on both sides, including their effective participation (albeit a very small minority) in the Republican militias, the article reveals the cross-effects of post-war repression and the misogyny of certain anti-Franco militants, and proposes a re-reading of women's action in the resistance based on the testimonies of the participants themselves.

The paper is divided into four parts. The first part analyses the phenomenon of the anti-Francoist guerrilla as an irregular war and the reasons for the marginal presence of women in it. The second part develops the role of women in the resistance, particularly in the guerrilla support networks. The third part analyses women's experiences and testimonies, while the fourth and final part analyses the most radical commitment - and at the same time most difficult to interpret, that of the women who joined the guerrilla groups in the mountains. The final aim is to provide a more complex reading of the multiple modalities and experiences of women's participation in the post-war anti-Francoist resistance, mainly through the voices of the women themselves.