page_title: Milicianas in the Spanish Civil War
section_title: On the front
hierarchical_section_title: Milicianas in the Spanish Civil War / Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) / On the front
caption_attribution_description: English: Woman training for a Republican militia.
context_page_description: Milicianas fought in the Spanish Civil War. They came from a culture with iconic fighters, and where women had been recently empowered through direct political engagement in political organizations and labor unions. The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera saw women take more to the streets to protest and riot, though their actions were dismissed by male political leaders. The creation of the Second Spanish Republic led to an environment encouraging active political participation in broader Spanish society, and ultimately served to assist many women in their decision to head to the front, as the Government expanded rights for women, including the right to vote, divorce, go to school and stand for election.
  The Asturian miners' strike of 1934, three years into the Republic's history, saw women mobilized on a battlefront where they defended the rights of striking miners. This created paranoia on the right that women would take up arms and dispense with male leadership. Two years later, the Spanish Civil War started in Melilla and soon expanded nationwide. Women rose up to defend the Republic, playing a critical role in making the war a protracted affair.
context_section_description: On the front, the norm was for women to serve in mixed gender battalion units. They were transferred around Spain, depending on military needs for troop reinforcements. Rearguard miliciana groups were more likely to be organized into women only battalions, and were more likely to be based in the same location as part of defensive units. As a consequence, the roles played by each tended to be different.
  Women on the front often were faced with a duel burden of being expected to fight and to provide auxiliary support. Male leadership decisions to require this reinforced sexism inside the Republic, by allowing women to break free of gender norms by serving in combat but at the same time forcing them to engage in traditionally gendered tasks.  Despite this, they were recognized by their peers for their bravery.
  Most women on the front served in militias aligned with some political group.  A very small number served as members of the regular Republican army.  Members included Esperanza Rodríguez. In the first few months of the war, the Fifth Regiment had the largest contingent of milicianas among all militias. Most of the women serving in front line roles had their positions defined by the communist, anarchist or POUM leadership.  Most of these gave women equal roles when it came to combat, and providing the same military contribution. In comparison to men, women on the front were often more expected to take care of injured comrades. This sometimes put them in more harms way, as some women militia members were shot while tending to injured comrades in battle. Women who had to deal with this situation included  Josefa Rionda. Captains might also divert women on the battlefield to hospitals, where they expected them to work alongside nurses. In some cases, milicianas were told by column leaders that they were only allowed to remain on the front in support roles for men, by doing working as nurses or teaching largely illiterate militiamen to read.  A number of these women left those columns, seeking other units where they could serve in combat. Among the women serving in the international brigades, most worked as nurses, pharmacists or doctors.  Some Jewish, Polish and American women did go to Spain, and did serve in combat.  They were actively discouraged from doing so by anarchists, and outright banned from doing so by communists.
  Combat experience did not significantly differ based on the political affiliation of the battalion that women in combat were attached to. Women proved versatile on the front, able to serve in many different combat roles.  Women in rearguard battalions often met daily to practice weapons training, marching and drilling.  Many also received specialized training in the use of machine guns.   POUM was the only organization that had accepted women and provided them with weapons training.  The lack of weapons training by women in other militias would later be used as a reason to try to remove them from the front, even as those militias also failed to prove their male recruits with weapons training.
  Milicianas also came from all over Spain, including Madrid, Majorca, Catalonia and Asturias.  One miliciana served as captain of the artillery company of the Second Asturias Battalion.
  These women also came from across the leftist political spectrum. One of the few publicly socialist identified militia women in this period was María Elisa García, who served as a miliciana with the Popular Militias as a member Asturias Battalion Somoza company.
  Women were injured on the front.  Julia Manzanal was a miliciana who found herself pregnant on the front as a result of her relationship with her boyfriend.  She found a midwife, had an abortion in the morning and was back to fighting on the front in afternoon.  As a consequence of the abortion, she bled for over a month while in combat. While on the front, Rosario Sánchez had an accident involving an explosive made from a condensed milk jug that led to the amputation of her hand.  She almost bled out as a consequence of her wounds, but survived only to later be captured a
caption: An armed Republican miliciana in 1936 in a photo by Gerda Taro.
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