The feminist movement and the politics of transition pacts: achievements and compromises

Abstract

This article analyses the influence the feminist movement had in Spain during the years of the transition while a democratic political culture was being established. It studies the activism of the social movements, feminist participation in the media, splitting of this movement, and its integration into the political parties of the time. It also examines the incorporation of feminists into institutions up until the time that legislation on the equality of the sexes was proclaimed in Spain. This was not without a price because the incorporation of feminists into politics meant renouncing some of their vindications in favour of consensus and the policy of pacts which was characteristic of the Spanish transition. This also meant that the feminist movement, which contributed to the change in the Spanish social and family model more than any other group, was forced to postpone some of its initial proposals for years, or even decades. In exchange, other proposals were recognised as urgent in the unavoidable dynamics of checks and balances during the transition.