page_title: Women in the Communist Party of Spain in the Spanish Civil War
section_title: Prelude to the Second Republic (1800–1922)
hierarchical_section_title: Women in the Communist Party of Spain in the Spanish Civil War / Prelude to the Second Republic (1800–1922)
caption_attribution_description: English: Spanish political leader Dolores Ibárruri (1895-1989).
context_page_description: Women in the Communist Party of Spain in the Spanish Civil War were highly active, the most visible figure in the movement being Dolores Ibárruri, who joined in its early years. The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera pushed the group underground, where they had to meet clandestinely around their public face, the football club Oriente FC.
  The birth of the Second Republic in 1931 saw a new era in Spain, where women were welcomed en masse into the public sphere, receiving voting rights, the ability to divorce and increased access to education. The first elections in 1931 saw the PCE kept out of Congress, though communist sympathizer Margarita Nelken y Mansbergen did win a seat representing the PSOE. She went on to win re-election in 1933, and PCE won a single seat in Congress.
  In 1935 PCE embraced the Popular Front line, seeking to unite all anti-fascist forces under a single umbrella. Dolores Ibárruri's prominence grew in this period, as she increasingly became the face of the party, winning a seat in the 1936 elections. PCE's strategy towards women in the Second Republic was largely to address their needs primarily as a tool to grow membership.
context_section_description: Following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, members of Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) began to discuss what the role of communism should be in their own party, with the topic raised in PSOE's 1919 Congress.  The following year, the youth wing of the party created the Communist Party of Spain (Spanish: Partido Comunista de España) (PCE) but they not recognized as a PSOE affiliate. Partido Comunista Obrero Español were founded in 1921 by Bolshevik sympathizers within PSOE, but they too were rejected by PSOE.
  Dolores Ibárruri was one of the few women active in leadership in the Communist Party of Spain.  Joining during the 1920s, she found herself elected to the Central Committee by 1930.  Two years later, she was the head of its Women's Commission.
caption: Spanish political leader Dolores Ibárruri in 1936.
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