Federica Montseny
Federica Montseny Mañé (; 1905–1994) was a Spanish anarchist and intellectual who served as Minister of Health and Social Policy of the Government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Civil War. She is known as a novelist and essayist and for being one of the first female ministers in Western Europe. Early life. Federica Montseny was born on 12 February 1905 in Madrid, Spain. She was the sole surviving child of Joan Montseny and Teresa Mañé, both teachers and anarchists of Catalan extraction. They lived in Madrid because the 1896 Barcelona Corpus Christi procession bombing had led to  her father being imprisoned and then exiled. The couple returned to Spain secretly and settled in the capital. From 1898, her parents jointly edited the fortnightly journal "La Revista Blanca", one of the most significant anarchist publications of the time. The family put its savings into a house on the outskirts of Madrid. The developer that built the house threatened to sue her father when the latter accused him of stealing from the poor by taking money for houses that were never built. This forced the family to leave and spend the next years moving frequently and surviving occasional writing  and farming. During Montseny's childhood, the Civil Guard would frequently visit the family home searching for her father. She would let them in as slowly as possible in order to give him time to hide. Montseny was educated at home by her parents. After Montseny acquired basic reading and writing skills, her mother used progressive didactic methods to foster Montseny's curiosity, providing her with a wide range of reading material in order to encourage her to pursue her own intellectual interests. Montseny became acquainted with literature as well as social and political theory. She also credits the rural  environment she grew up in with shaping her intellectual development. Throughout her life, she would return to nature when grappling with social questions. She had three children with Germinal Esgleas. Spanish Civil War and Minister of Health. During the Spanish Civil War, Montseny supported the republican government. She rejected the violence in the republican-held territory: "a lust for blood inconceivable in honest man before". In November 1936, Francisco Largo Caballero appointed Montseny as Minister of Health. In doing so, she became the first woman in Spanish history to be a cabinet minister. Exile. In the late 1930s, she and  other Republicans moved to Toulouse, France, and only returned to visit Spain in 1977, following Franco's death. She died in Toulouse on January 14, 1994 at the age of 88. Legacy. Several streets, parks and schools are named in her memory in Spain, especially in Catalonia, and in cities like Paris.