“The Problems in Our School”: Female Authors in Spanish Journals of Education, 1922-1936

Abstract

The educational reform project of the Second Spanish Republic stemmed from the educational reform movement in Spain beginning in the late 19th century. The Spanish movement was heavily influenced by foreign ideas and was closely linked to the international New Education movement. Women played important roles in the Spanish educational reform movement as transmitters of foreign ideas and practitioners of new methods. Education was an accepted professional field for women in Spain, and in this field, women went beyond their traditional role as teachers to travel abroad, publish books, and direct schools. This thesis examines articles written by women in two Spanish journals of education, the BILE and the Revista de Pedagogía from 1922-1936. In these articles, women do not simply report on foreign methods or dispense classroom advice, they call for fundamental change to the Spanish educational system and more broadly, to Spanish society. Through their status as experts in education, women were able to enter the public sphere and suggest changes at a national level even at a time when they had no political rights. These women can be classified as social feminists and they worked towards fundamental reform in Spanish society, especially for poor women and children. Although they did not explicitly advocate for women’s rights, they subtly extended their traditional role into the public sphere and entered the political conversation at a time when women were often excluded