Rethinking women’s agency during the civil war. The case of Mujeres al Servicio de España

Abstract

This article analyses the work carried out in the sewing workshops by the women’s organisation Mujeres al Servicio de España. The actors, agents and frameworks of recruitment of the first registrants, the process of expansion of the workshops and the motivations of the different groups of affiliates are examined. To do this, we start by reviewing the theoretical foundations provided by the agency’s specialists and the scholars of collective action and we use the press and documentation from private and military archives as sources. It concludes by highlighting these women’s relative capacity for agency and their important role in generating material and symbolic assets of great importance in the context of the civil war. Above all, with regard to their role as agents of socialization and their contribution to strengthening the collective identities of the rebels and to the reaffirmation of the paradigm of women defended by them.